Bitting on a hot day

[otherwayup]

Had a hot date on Saturday with 13,000 birds.

 

Boy was I glad to see this, the last pen of the day. I sweat buckets.

 

[Paul223]

Nice!

[Scully]

Bloody hell...pleased I'm only a DIY 'keeper.

[Maddaftspaniel]

Its hard work.

Birds look in good health.

Whats the green mesh triangular thing for?

[Paul223]

I'm guessing bitted birds go in there, may be it leads to a pop hole through, saves searching for unbitted birds

[SEshooter]

May be a silly question but what is bitting?

[Paul223]

It's when you use one of these

"A bit fitter tool"

 

To fit this

"A bit"

 

Between a poults beak to help stop it feather pecking by not allowing the beak to fully close, it holds itself in place as the ends fit into the nostril, a time consuming tedious job when doing big numbers

Edit to add pic

Edited May 19, 2014 by Paul223

[SEshooter]

Thanks, I can imagine it is a tedious job. Do they fall off as the bird grows?

[Paul223]

There's a knack to getting the bird to open wide, and it's all to easy to fit the bit under a closed beak which would usually lead to starvation !

 

Some may work loose and fall off but the majority will be cut off

 

Those in my hand are the common B size, there's also A size for younger birds and C size for older.

Leaving the bits on to long causes problems with beak mismatch growth!

[hillmouse]

I am old enough to remember the days before bitfitter tools. Nimble fingers were a bonus. The big trick was keeping the bits somewhere easily accessible to you and not to the birds. Spent many scorching days on that job. Early morning starts were a good idea.