Effects of Debeaking and Feeding Whole Grain on the Reproductive Performance of Pullets

Abstract

LONSDALE et al. (1957) found that there was a significant interaction between debeaking treatment and diet upon body weight of ten week old chickens: “Improvement in body weight was considerably greater by the feeding of mash-crumbles-pellets to non-debeaked chickens than to debeaked chickens.” Vondell and Ringrose (1957) also reported a significant interaction between debeaking treatment and diet form upon ten week body weight in chicks. However, in this case the differences in body weight due to debeaking were greater when the chickens were fed mash than when pellets were used. In this study, limited observation of chicks debeaked by removal of two thirds of the maxilla (upper mandible) and fed a mash-crumbles-pellets program, suggests that such treatment reduced body weight markedly. Bray et al. (1960) debeaked laying pullets at various times during the laying year by removing one-half the upper beak. All strains of newly debeaked pullets lost weight during…