No Spurs Allowed

In my effort to have Martha and Mellie spend their days with the hens in the chicken run, I decided to remove Beemster's spurs just in case he decides he does not like goats in his territory.

 Beemster might look grumpy...

....but he really is a relatively docile bird.

Rooster cuddles.

However, his spurs are sharp, nasty looking appendages and I could not think of a good reason to leave them.  It turned out that it was very easy to remove Beemster's spurs.  After watching a few videos on YouTube, we decided on the "potato method".  It seemed a bit odd but, whatever, it really worked!

After disinfecting Beemster's legs, feet, and spurs, we held a hot potato onto the spurs to soften them.

This did not appear to bug Beemster at all.  Then we took needle nose pliers and wiggled the spurs and off them came.  Easy peasy.  They might have come off easily without the potato and admittedly, we did not try.  Maybe next time.

We coated what was left in a flour and salt mixture to stop the bleeding and - all done!  Apparently the spurs grow back but the more times you remove them, the smaller they get.

Now we have one spur-less rooster.  Beemster really did not seem bothered by any of this.   In fact, I think he liked having his feet washed in the warm water.  Most likely he thought we were more crazy than anything else.