Beak trimming is the removal of part of the top and bottom beak of a bird. It is also called “debeaking”, although this term is inaccurate as only part of the beak is removed. It is an animal husbandry practice commonly carried out in the poultry industry. Farm managers have their flock’s beak-trimmed to blunt the beaks enough to prevent the occurrence of damaging pecking.
Re-trimming may also be carried out if a bird’s beak grows back enough to cause pecking damage. Birds are often re-trimmed at 8-12 weeks of age to avoid this happening. Some non-trimmed adult birds may need trimming if a pecking outbreak occurs.
Why de-beak?
Birds seriously get injured through pecking. Beak trimming is performed early in the life of commercial hens to decrease injuries caused by cannibalism, bullying, and feather and vent pecking. Birds naturally peck at the environment and each other to investigate and work out where they fit into the flock (pecking order). This behavior can become a problem in commercial situations and many deaths have been recorded among untrimmed hens.
Feather pecking, and cannibalism affects all birds in all production systems. When laying birds are kept in systems that give the opportunity for aggressive birds to contact many other birds, cannibalism and feather pecking can spread rapidly through the flock and result in injuries and mortality. Mortality of up to 25-30% of the flock can occur and cause huge mortality and morbidity problems as well as financial losses to the farmer.
When to debeak?
Beak trimming is carried out at various ages depending on the preference of the farm manager. The most common ages for birds to be beak-trimmed are:
Day-old (most common), 5-10 days old, 4-6 weeks, 8-12 weeks and touch up trim of adult birds (mainly in alternative systems).
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