"Dave Smith" > wrote in message
...
> b
> On 2014-02-20 22:07, ChattyCathy wrote:
>> On Thu, 20 Feb 2014 18:31:59 -0500, Dave Smith wrote:
>>
>>> On 2014-02-20 2:25 PM, ChattyCathy wrote:
>>>
>>>> All our chickens (both past and present) have their beaks intact - and
>>>> they seem perfectly content that way.
>>>
>>> Did you hatch them yourselves or did you get them from a hatchery? It is
>>> almost standard operating procedure for hatcheries to debeak chicks for
>>> shipping. When you get thousands of little chickens running around they
>>> tend to get aggressive and cannibalistic.
>>
>> Bought the first lot directly from a poultry farm when they were 4 weeks
>> old (which we collected ourselves) - and their beaks were intact. Then we
>> bought some 6-8 months old chickens from a neighbour (who had bought them
>> from a different poultry farm) and their beaks were intact too.
>>
>
>
> Order a couple hundred from a hatchery and they will likely
> be debeaked.

Back in the old days of chicken/turkey ranching, we always debeaked the
chicks using a machine with a red hot top bar. I always hated the smell of
it. That was in CA in the 50's and early 60's. I don't even know if they
still do it, and I'm sure the machinery is much more modern now.

Cheri