Can I trim an older cockerels spurs?

[Bontfaenlady]

I have a pet cockerel and one hen. They are the remains of a much larger flock which the fox desimated. However, as the cockerel now only has one hen he treads her constantly and his spurs are tearing her apart. Currently I either have to keep her penned in or him and it seems a shame as we have a lovely large acre of garden which they can roam free range and they would be much happier if they could be together.
Can any one tell me if I can solve this problem by trimming the cockerels spurs? (if so any instructions would be good, incidentally I am a farmer and am quite competent at animal husbandry but never having had cocerels before I do not want to try it and find I cut below the quick or something) or if you have any other ideas please advise I would be most grateful. Someone suggested putting a saddle on the hen, but I am not sure how that would be sustainable.

 

[dinosaw]

I think regardless of whether you trim the spurs you will have a problem with 1 cockerel to 1 hen, you really need to get him some more ladies and her some more friends I think to share the load. Personally I am a bit squeamish about cutting like you in case I go below the quick which runs about 3/4 of the length of the spur so I would file them till they are blunt either manually or with a dremel but of course that does have the drawback that you need to do it more often. There is an article here about cutting them if you feel confident enough http://poultrykeeper.com/external-problems/trimming-cockerels-spurs

 

[chrismahon]

I agree with Dinosaw that she will get a real battering on her own. It's only a matter of time before she is injured whether you trim the spurs or not. Perhaps a saddle will help whilst you get some more hens? But I would keep them separated until then.

We do a lot of spur trimming. Mainly just to get the points off and round them. It is a tricky operation because our Wyandotte had blood almost to the point and removing any more than 3mm made a mess. It's a two person job. The Leghorn bantam had 15mm taken off without problem. First take a torch and look through the spur. Don't get any closer than 10mm to where you can see blood because in my experience that's how far it will bleed at. You will find out and so best to start small as possible. We cut them slowly with a brand new junior hacksaw blade held in the fingers (spur held with other hand) and pulled, not pushed. Then file with a nail emery board. If you do any research please totally ignore the ridiculous 'hot potato' method- all that does is burn the spur out leaving the quick, which must be horrendously painful. If it does bleed continue the cut and keep it mopped up -it will stop but takes a long time.

 

[Marigold]

Hi Bontfaenlady, and welcome to the Forum.

Have a look at this YouTube link, and see what you think.
http://youtu.be/EEJv4KvIog8

There's an alternative way which involves cutting the spurs quite close without any bleeding. I found this a bit hard to watch, but certainly the bird didn't seem affected afterwards and certainly he didn't bleed at all. Maybe this would be easier and more effective than a hacksaw, which it would imagine would be slow and difficult in comparison.

http://youtu.be/A1Dh8nRNJLM

I've never kept a cockerel so have no experience of dealing with spurs, so I'm not recommending either method, just throwing ideas out for discussion.