How do I trim my chicken's beak?

A family who raises backyard chickens in the city had a problem: one of their hens was having trouble eating because her beak was overgrown.

The fix is simple once you know how to do it: trim the beak to help her eat.

When I went over to help, I could tell the family spent a lot of time working with their chickens. Ms. Ash was very docile and easy to hold. 

We wrapped her in an old t-shirt to keep her calm and tuck her wings against her body. A towel works well, too.

Then we used a very technical tool: nail clippers.

Sitting at the table, I situated Ash on her back on my lap. Then I could hold her head steady with one hand while clipping her beak with the other. This can also be a two-person job.

Here she is before trimming:

Notice how the top part of her beak hangs over the bottom. I took a little at a time and clipped. Ash helped by twitching--that trimmed it back pretty easily! If she was being aggressive and pecking at her flock mates, I might have trimmed it back further to blunt her beak. That was not necessary here.

Here she is after trimming:

 

The top and bottom of the beak are now the same length. We checked to make sure there were no jagged edges. Special thanks to Brianne for allowing these photos and serving as hand model!

Since Ash was so calm, we looked at her toenails while she was inside. We trimmed them back a little bit, but they weren't in bad shape at all. We just trimmed a little at a time to make sure we didn't get too close to the quick. If you cut the quick, they will start to bleed. 

As a reminder, if you are giving a chicken or turkey a pedicure do not paint their nails. They will pick at it because it's shiny and/or red and nail polish is not an ideal poultry food.

There you have it: a simple spa day for the pullet. She was back in her coop in less than 30 minutes.

--Beth, aka Turkeyman's daughter