Poultry Debreaking
Debeaking, also called Beak trimming in poultry management is the act of reducing the length of the beak of poultry birds. The purpose of doing this is to prevent feather pulling and cannibalism and to reduce feed wastage. It is a delicate operation, and if it is improperly done, it may leads to difficulties in drinking and eating, which directly leads to poor growth, unevenness in flock and even mortality as a result blood loss.
The operation can be carried out at one week-old (7-9 days) and few weeks-old (8-10 weeks). The advantage of debeaking at one-week-old is that, the operation would have a minimum effect on chick’s body weight and it is not necessary to carry it out again a second time during the rearing period.
For precise beak trimming operation, the birds should be few weeks old (8-10 weeks). The general disadvantage of debeaking or beak trimming is that, when it is improperly done, it could take long for the birds to regain body weight.