Roosters spurs are too big, what to do?

Our 2 year old rooster has huge spurs that are a good 3 inches long. The problem is we found out today he is cutting the hens when he gets on them. We found one today just sitting in the pen acting like she wasn't feeling well or couldn't walk. She stands but not well and hops. My son started examining her and found that she has a cut on her side that is obviously from the roosters spurs and a scratch on the other side. After examing the other hens they also have scratches but no cuts like this one has. We don't want our hens cut up. It is a open wound that bled and she acts as though her leg may hurt. She is a good 8 pounds and the roo is only about 6-1/2 so it's not like she is tiny.
He is a really good rooster and very protective of his hens. What can we do with these spurs? Can they be cut off? Cut shorter? Padded, LOL. What can we do with them. Any suggestions?

there is a quick in the spurs like a dogs nails. u can file with a metal file down to shortly above the quick, cut down some with dog nail clippers then file to round them off. or the only other one i know of is despuring them wich i think would be painful u can pull and twist them off but they will bleed, u'd need all purpose flour to stop the bleeding. they grow back but take longer to come back.

i have never despured them but i have had roos get a hang nail and pull them compleately off w/ just quick exposed getting caught in the hardware cloth bottom of the cage since so long. i freaked and it bleed pretty good on the last one but once flour was applied it stoped within a min. as long as u keep the quick clean and don't get cut off it will slowly grow back just fine even if it is bare quick. my roo healed very fast and we had no probs after it. now i trim them and file them so i don't have to worry about it.

i also use chicken saddles if i see the boys r starting to bareback the girls they will protect most of their sides as well as their backs.
hope that helps,
silkie

Where do you get chicken saddles from?

i bought mine from another breeder but i could probably use mine as a pattern to make them. there is places online that sell them as well but they r usually pretty expensive.

i just did a yahoo search here is a way cheaper supplier. check this out.

http://www.mbldesigns.com/chicken_aprons.html

I used a dremel tool with a stone for the silkie roo who was always flogging me. I always used a dremel to do my exlarge parrot nails, if you hit the quick the stone will cauterize any bleeding.

Interesting. We will have to try it. Hope he doesn't get too mad at us :) We will have to do something though to save the poor hens that are getting scratched and cut.
I can't figure out how he hasn't cut his own leg with them when walking. They are sooo long.

LOL! may why do people decorate their saddles. Makes me think of the type of person who dresses their dog. Hmm, maybe soon we'll see people carrying around dressed up chickens in the purses...
lets hope not.

I'veheard you can use a hot potato on the spurs. Just heat the potato. Hold up against the spur for a few seconds. Then twist the spur and it will come right off. Then feed chicken potato.
I can't remember where I heard this but maybe google it.

New way to play hot potato huh :)

i use them for when the boys start getting to rough on the girls or close to show time so i don't have to seperate them all from boys before hand. usually at fairs they r kept in pairs so if they do start to do that they at least r not totally bare for the shows so it's not so bad. they can't tear gashes in them so easily if they have them on.

some people have them made with d-rings on them this allows them to put a leash hooked to it to walk them. house chickens wear chicken diapers too,lol. i have some that r blue plaid and some r little scarecrows or people on them can't remember. i'm gonna take mine for my silkies and use them for patterns for my other breeds as well so they all have saddles if i need them.
silkie

Hi
Believe it or not an angle grinder is handy to use for the roosters spurs. I saw it on TV. It worked well.

Chicken diapers?

angle grinder huh? I'll have to see if my husband has one. We may have to duct tape the roo down to do anything to them. I don't think he will part with them willingly.

Chicken diapers!! love it! I always wondered how people kept chcikens in their house. I just figured they cleanered their floor like all day.

Naturally spurs get long as roosters get older. You can either kill your old roosters and just keep young ones (there's no reason to keep a rooster if you don't intend to hatch the eggs and young roosters are more fertile than old roosters). You also can remove the spurs by using an electric debeaker. That way the quick is cauterized when the spurs are removed. It is best to do this on young roosters, then the spurs will not grow back.

grgarden, thanks for the info. We really don't want to oft him because he is a good protective roo for his hens and fairly tame. He is only about 2 years old. He will probably never see a pot and just die of old age. My kids would be devestated if we did away with him. We have 2 younger roos that are his sons. One looks so much like him but has a straight comb. I think we will start minimizing the spurs on the younger ones before they get to be as long as his.

Let me tell you about the easiest and quickest way to deal with long spurs.
Have an assistant hold the roo against their body holding the legs by the thighs out toward you. Holding the shank with one hand, the other with a pair of piers, grab tightly a hold of the base of spur then firmly twist and pull quickly. Its pops right off a lot easy than you would ever imagine. Yes it will bleed some but not any worse than cutting a dogs nail a bit to short. You can always put blood stop power on it or apply pressure to each spur with a clean rag for a couple minutes but I never bother with either and sent them on their way. None have bled to death so far or had any problems from this method.

Thanks Cottage Rose :)