Do you own chickens? If so, you are probably aware of what a rooster spur is. In the photo it shows my head rooster proudly strutting his stuff. Note the spurs sticking out the sides of his legs.

Roosters have spurs for protection. They use them to protect themselves and their hens from predators. But there are reasons to remove the spurs for the benefit of the rooster and the flock, not to mention the owner.

Here are a few reasons to remove the spurs from the rooster:

• The roosters spurs have grown so long the rooster has difficulty walking.
• Rooster attacks anything in its vicinty, including the owner.
  
• Rooster hurts the hen when breeding. In some cases the spur will gouge the side of the hen and could cause wounds or death.
  

My head rooster is not an aggressive rooster and has only once done damage to one of his hens so I allow him, for protection purposes, to keep his spurs.

There are many methods of spur removal but this hub is going to focus on one specific method, the hot potato method. You can read about other methods by visiting my blog post How to Remove Rooster Spurs and also viewing the video below.

What you will need to accomplish this is:

• Baked potatoes (2)
• Something to hold the hot potato

Here are the steps to remove the spurs:

1. Bake or microwave your potatoes.
2. Wrap them in tin foil.
3. Catch the rooster, hold him under your arm, and place a hot potato on each spur.
4. Leave on for approximately 5-10 minutes.
5. Gently pull off the spur casing.

Here is a comment from someone who has tried this method:

I did the potato remedy today for my rooster - and SUCCESS!!!!! How easy and stress free for me and the bird. They came away very easily. No bleeding, no pain, no squacking!!!! The new, little spurs are tender looking but no blood to speak of. BRILLIANT! Lisa

There are several other methods to remove spurs from a rooster but most require a tool or another item. In the adjacent video, a poultry judge demonstrates how to remove them without any tools. Can it be this simple?