UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA • COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 
 
 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 
 
 BERKELEY 4, CALIFORNIA 
 
 DEBEAKING POULTRY 
 
 W. E. NEWLON' and J. R. TAVERNETTF 
 
 Cannibalism and feather picking among chick- 
 ens, turkeys, and pheasants cause considerable 
 losses to flock owners. These vices increase 
 bird mortality and reduce the market value of 
 chickens because of bare or pin backs and of 
 turkeys because of blue backs. A number of me- 
 chanical devices, antipick salves, and diet 
 changes have been used to prevent the vices; but 
 none of these methods have been universally suc- 
 cessful. Several years ago a poultryman in San 
 Diego County, California, tried debeaking his 
 birds (removing part of the upper beak) to stop 
 cannibalism and feather picking. Since the re- 
 sults were satisfactory, other poultrymen in 
 that area adopted the method; and it has now be- 
 come a common practice with many flock owners 
 throughout the state. Wherever used it has dis- 
 placed all former methods. 
 
 The procedure in debeaking is to remove a 
 portion of the upper beak (fig. l) by means of 
 a heated knife, which cauterizes the tissue and 
 prevents bleeding. 
 
 drink within a few minutes after being debeaked. 
 Mash should be fed immediately to discourage 
 picking at other things that may injure the beak. 
 Grain or other coarse materials should not be 
 fed for about 24 hours, since these may cause 
 bleeding. All feed should be placed in hoppers, 
 because debeaked birds cannot take it off the 
 ground or floor so easily. The birds have less 
 tendency to pick over the feed and bill it out 
 of the hoppers: being unable to pick up choice 
 particles, they are forced to eat exactly what 
 is mixed for them. They have difficulty in eat- 
 ing green feed unless it is chopped and fed in 
 hoppers rather than in large pieces on the ground. 
 They cannot easily obtain sufficient shell and 
 limestone or granite grit even from hoppers, be- 
 cause they hesitate to force the lower beak into 
 these heavy materials. This difficulty is over- 
 come, however, if the shell and grit are fre- 
 quently scattered over the grain or mash. 
 
 Flocks of debeaked growing birds have made 
 greater average weight gains than flocks of non- 
 
 Fig. 1. — Debeaked chickens: on A and B about one half of the upper beak has been removed; on C and 
 D enough was removed several months ago so that the beak healed over but did not grow back. 
 
 Effect on Birds 
 
 Observations made on many flocks throughout 
 the state show that debeaking is a positive con- 
 trol for all forms of cannibalism and feather 
 pulling. Growing birds tend to be more uniform 
 in size and in feather condition, and all birds 
 are less nervous and more quiet . There are no 
 harmful effects; hungry birds start to eat and 
 
 Poultry Specialist in Agricultural Extension. 
 
 Associate Agricultural Engineer in the Ex- 
 periment Station. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 
 
 DAVIS 
 
 debeaked birds. Two reasons are given: First, 
 the birds must eat the feed as it is mixed, thus 
 obtaining a more balanced diet. Second, the ag- 
 gressive birds are unable to drive the timid ones 
 away from the feed; the latter obtain their share; 
 and so the flock is more uniform in size and has 
 a higher average weight. 
 
 Debeaking Devices 
 
 The first device used for debeaking was a 
 soldering iron with a chisel point that required 
 two persons for the operation. While one person 
 
 CI] 
 
held the bird's upper beak over a lath or some 
 similar object, another handled the soldering 
 iron. Since then, however, devices both home- 
 made and commercial have been developed with 
 which one person can do the job. 
 
 Figures 2 to 4 show a satisfactory homemade 
 device developed at the University of California. 
 It consists of a 350-watt soldering iron with a 
 removable tip replaced by a specially constructed 
 
 Fig. 2.--A homemade debeaker us- 
 ing an electric soldering iron fitted 
 with a special tip. 
 
 Fig. 3 ---The soldering iron and the 
 special tip. The tip on the iron is 
 turned 90 from its normal position. 
 
 one. This tip was made by welding a piece of 
 l/8-inch flat, hard, alloy steel over the end of 
 a sleeve that had been threaded to screw onto the 
 heating element. This piece of steel extends 
 down about 1/2 inch below the sleeve and is bev- 
 eled on the back side to make a cutting blade 
 about 1 inch wide. 
 
 Any heavy-duty (250- to 500-watt) soldering 
 iron, with or without a removable tip, may be 
 prepared for this purpose by merely cutting off 
 the copper tip 1/4 inch in front of the heating 
 element and brazing the cauterizing blade onto 
 
 the stump. This procedure eliminates the sleeve 
 mentioned above. The soldering iron is clamped 
 on a small board hinged to the main base. The 
 tip of the iron is held about 3 or 4 inches 
 above the beak rest by a spring and is pulled 
 down by a foot lever attached to the tip by means 
 of a chain and rod. The beak rest consists of a 
 piece of standard l/8-inch iron pipe flattened 
 to a l/4-inch thickness where the beak is placed. 
 One end of the pipe is connected to a pail of 
 water by a rubber tube (fig. 4). When the de- 
 vice is being used, water is allowed to trickle 
 through the pipe to keep it cool and to prevent 
 burning of the bird's mouth. A flow of a drop 
 of water every 2 or' 3 seconds is sufficient for 
 the cooling. A shield made of l/4-inch asbestos 
 
 Fig. 4. --Another view of the 
 homemade debeaker, showing the 
 various parts. The asbestos 
 shield has been removed from 
 its supports and placed in a 
 horizontal position. 
 
 board is placed across the front of the device 
 (see fig. 2) to protect the bird's comb and the 
 operator's hand from the heat of the iron. A 
 hole about 3/4 inch square is cut in the shield 
 at the beak rest for inserting the beak. The 
 entire unit is mounted on a main base that can 
 be fastened on a table or special stand. A 
 piece of asbestos is wrapped around a portion 
 of the heated tip to assist in maintaining the 
 heat. 
 
 Figure 5 shows the only commercial unit now 
 being manufactured. The removable cutting blade 
 is on the end of a copper rod attached to a 
 hand lever. A portion of the rod recedes into a 
 hollow heating element , and the heat is conducted 
 down the rod to the blade. The lever is attached 
 to a spring that normally holds the blade up. It 
 can be operated by hand or can have a foot pedal 
 attached to it. The beak rest is made of a 
 piece of partially flattened copper tubing and 
 is cooled by siphoning from a pail of water. The 
 unit is also equipped with an adjustable beak 
 
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stop for gauging the amount of beak to be cut 
 off. The heating element has a connected load 
 of 250 watts. In figure 6 is sketched a new 
 model of commercial debeaker to be manufactured 
 by the same company as the model in figure 5. 
 
 Fig. 5.--A commercial debeaker. 
 
 Fig. 6. — A sketch of a proposed model 
 of commercial debeaker to be manufactured 
 by the same company as the model shown in 
 figure 5- 
 
 Debeaking Practices 
 
 Both turkeys and chickens from hatching to 
 maturity have been successfully treated. Age 
 does not seem to be important except that newly 
 hatched birds should learn to eat before being 
 de beaked. They should therefore be 3 days old 
 
 or more. The most common practice is to debeak 
 when the birds are removed from the brooders. 
 Birds that depend on the range for a portion of 
 their feed, however, should not be treated. De- 
 beaking of breeding roosters has not been suf- 
 ficiently investigated and is not recommended. 
 It has, however, been successfully done on breed- 
 ing toms. 
 
 The time required for the beaks to grow back 
 to normal varies according to the amount removed. 
 Sufficient experimental work has not been done 
 to make exact determinations on the rate of re- 
 growth. According to general observations, how- 
 ever, regrowth takes 3 to 6 months when one third 
 to one half of the beak is removed, and can be 
 stopped entirely by removing three quarters or 
 slightly more (fig. 1, C and D) . 
 
 Cauterizing the beak to prevent bleeding is 
 very important and should be done carefully. For 
 proper cauterizing, the blade should be hot 
 enough to have a dark-red color (about 1,000°F) 
 or be slightly hotter. Some operators prefer to 
 use a sharp blade that cuts quickly and then to 
 cauterize by holding the beak against the blade 
 for a second or so. They claim that crushing of 
 the beak is lessened by this method. Other op- 
 erators prefer to use a relatively dull blade 
 that cuts more slowly and has time to cauterize 
 while cutting. Either method is satisfactory 
 provided the heat is applied long enough to stop 
 the bleeding but not so long as to injure the 
 bird. Young birds can be cauterized more quick- 
 ly than older ones. 
 
 When a foot-operated unit is used, the bird 
 may be held by the legs with one hand and by 
 the head and neck with the other. The beak is 
 held open by pressing on the angle of jaws with 
 the thumb and forefinger or by placing the fore- 
 finger in the mouth. When a hand-operated de- 
 vice is used, the bird's legs may be held well 
 up into the operator's right or left armpit while 
 the head and beak are held in position with the 
 same hand. In this way the other hand is left 
 free to work the lever. Care should be taken to 
 have the bird's tongue below the beak rest. 
 
 The rate at which debeaking can be done de- 
 pends on the age of the birds, the experience of 
 the operator, and the amount of assistance avail- 
 able. When the birds are given to an experienced 
 operator as fast as he can handle them, 200 to 
 300 adult and 300 to 400 young birds can be de- 
 beaked per hour. One operator with three assist- 
 ants was able to debeak 300 6-week-old birds in 
 a half hour. 
 
 5m- Aug. ,'44(1216) 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of California, Davis Libraries 
 
 http://archive.org/details/debeakingpoultry49newl