Chicken Genetics & Care Myths—Vaulted Skulls, Spurs, Combs, Frostbite & More

Veterinarian Dr. M joins the Poultry Nerds Podcast to unpack chicken genetics and practical care: what vaulted skulls mean in crested breeds (Silkies, Polish), how to safely trim spurs (and what not to do), the real role of combs and wattles in heat regulation, why Vaseline doesn’t prevent frostbite, and humane tips for beak/nail maintenance. We also bust common myths—like “no wattle = sterile rooster”—and discuss caponization, turkey snoods in commercial flocks, and managing rooster behavior responsibly. Perfect for backyard keepers, show breeders, and gamefowl enthusiasts who want science-based, hands-on guidance.

What you’ll learn

• Vaulted skulls in crested breeds: risks, handling, and prevention
• Spur trimming: seeing the quick, filing vs. cutting, infection risks
• Combs & wattles: heat dissipation, frostbite realities, dubbing context
• Winter care: ventilation vs. moisture, recognizing frostbite stages
• Beak & nail care: scissor beak management, safe filing, feeding tips
• Myth-busting: wattles and fertility, rooster aggression management
• Caponization cautions and when to consult a vet

Keywords: chicken podcast, poultry podcast, vaulted skulls silkies, chicken spur trimming, combs and wattles, chicken frostbite prevention, beak trimming chickens, scissor beak chickens, rooster aggression, caponization, turkey snood, chicken health, backyard chickens, gamefowl care, poultry husbandry

Transcript

Jennifer: 0:24

Welcome poultry nerds. We are back with our favorite veterinarian, Dr. M.

Carey: 0:31

I mean outta respect I've had my name misspelled a lot, and if I type hers really fast. Don't pay attention. Autocorrect will misspell it for me.

Dr. Morishita: 0:43

How did they spell it?

Carey: 0:46

There's two or three different ways. One of them involves a four letter word being put at the end instead of where it should be, and it's okay. I just have to be careful with it. So when I type it out, I just do Doctor M'cause

Jennifer: 1:01

I don't wanna mess up. And then automatically wants to put an H in Theresa too.

Carey: 1:06

Yeah.

Jennifer: 1:08

So Dr. M, are you okay with Dr. M? Sure. It sounds like you're, MI six on a James Bond movie. Okay. So we are gonna talk about some physical traits today that we see in all kinds of species, I guess, right?

Dr. Morishita: 1:29

Yeah. Every species has little. Issues.

Jennifer: 1:34

Yep. So the first thing we're gonna talk about is vaulted skulls. So nothing I have has a vaulted skull.

Carey: 1:42

Yeah. I don't have any crested birds Uhuh.

Jennifer: 1:46

So tell us about'em, will you?

Dr. Morishita: 1:49

Well, you know, the vaulted skulls are most prominent in silkies.

Carey: 1:55

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Morishita: 1:56

But they also have an encrusted birds, so like polish as well.

Jennifer: 2:01

There's a crested duck too, isn't there?

Dr. Morishita: 2:03

So what is Ed skulls? Yes. So that means they have a very weakened area on the top of their skull where their crest is. And, um, this is like a genetic mutation. It's an abnormality that was. Spread into these type of birds. Um, so what happens is that it's almost like the brain protruding out, but it is covered with a thin skeleton. but it's very thinner. And you know, just in general, as we work with our birds, we know that birds were built as flying machines. So their bones are really fragile and thin. They support the structures, but they are thin. If you compare the skeleton of a bird to that of a mammal, a dog, cat, or cow, we know their skeletons are heavier because birds by evolutionary was made to be flying machines. So everything is compact, reduced, and thin wall. That makes sense. So the best that I can do to explain that is that if we feel our own head, so let's feel the top of our heads and the side, you can feel that your skull is very thick, right? Mm-hmm. My wife says

Carey: 3:29

that mine's really thick sometimes,

Dr. Morishita: 3:31

it's good to have thick because it's protecting your brain. But, so if we think of on our skull, everything feels hard except if we go to the temple. So the temple, if you take your eyes and move it towards the side, towards your ear, just a little north of that area is the temple. So if you feel your temple, you can feel that it's a little softer there, right? And so you often hear that if you have children and babies, you have to watch out and protect the temple because that's the weakest spot of the skull. So think about this, for our bird skull. Now the bird skulls are very much thinner. So if I were to take a bird skull and if I'm trying to find out why they die, I can use a regular, like a surgical scissors. Just insert it and I can cut around over the whole brain and remove it. If I were to do a mammal, you need a bold, no scissors. cut the brain so you can already see the different thickness. So for the birds, what we have is temple, which is our weak spot. And so if people, hurt or puncture something in the temple, sometimes you can have a fatal injury Crested births like Silky or Polish, when they're born as chicks, if you see them as chicks, they have like a little protrusion on the top. It's covered by a skull, but that skull area is very thin, so if they fall or they get some kind of trauma there, it can often be fatal as well Okay. That's just a unique characteristic of the breed. You know those would crested feathers.

Jennifer: 5:12

Can you, what would be the downside to it? Can it be like Too vaulted? Like what's the downside to being

Dr. Morishita: 5:20

vaulted injury to the brain? Because that area covering that little skeletal area, covering it is very thin wall, and so if something hits their head, they can have brain injury, which can often,

Jennifer: 5:37

that explains a lot with the silkies. What have you experienced? I don't have silkies.

Carey: 5:45

Yeah, I don't have silkies either. But you know, I've often wondered sometimes if. People were like, they're the animals. They keep,

Dr. Morishita: 5:55

oh, well, you know, silkies are very unique too.'cause they got black flesh and their feathers are like, without structure.

Carey: 6:06

So for me, like the Silkies and the Creeger, which is another one that's like that, I think they're fascinating because when I look at'em, especially the Creeger. Because they're black. It reminds me of eighties rock and the hairbands.

Jennifer: 6:29

I think you're talking about Polish.

Carey: 6:31

I mean, they all have the hair. Oh. It's like, it's like everywhere, you know, on their head. And you know, back in the eighties when they had the hairbands is what I called'em. Yeah. You know, they had the hair, like they would tease their hair out. Wayne's world,

Dr. Morishita: 6:47

well, some of'em are very beautiful, but you know, in order to breathe like that, this is a genetic defect that was bred in, interesting.

Carey: 6:57

So do you have to take special precautions to keep stuff from hurting their head

Dr. Morishita: 7:03

Well, it's especially like this chick. it is, you have to do it because it's a thin area, so. If they fight among or something, you know, whatever they bang their head, they're are prone to neurologic problems. So that's why they, they often say Silkies have neurological issues, you know? Mm. Because of the damage. But it's no more different than if you had, you know, those little wine marons, those little sausage dog or Bassett hounds, you know, where they're longer, where they got short little legs. Mm-hmm. When you got the long back like that, those. Dogs are prone to like spinal damage,

Carey: 7:43

yeah.

Dr. Morishita: 7:44

So it's all, and that's a mutation too, you know, little pugs or Frenchy bulldogs or have those cat their nose pressed into their face and they have breathing problems. So these are all part of the genetic mutation. People like the looks of them, but they do have medical issues,

Jennifer: 8:02

oh, right. That makes more sense now. Okay. the next physical trait we wanna talk about is removing the Spurs. That seems to be pretty controversial, so can you do it safely?

Dr. Morishita: 8:16

The, you would need to trim it. You can never remove the spare spur entirely because if you look at one of my handouts, which you guys post it. It's called Medical Management of the Rooster of the Spur.

Carey: 8:32

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Morishita: 8:32

It's in those handouts and so in that. You will see an x-ray of an actual foot that I taxidermy. And then another one is the actual foot itself. So when you look at it, the spur think of it as a material similar to the beak. Our fingernails horn. It's, it's keratin, my structure. And so technically like a fingernail, like take your finger, put it up to the sun. You can, you can't see through where your flesh is, but you can see like white clear errors where you can see your fingernails, right? Mm-hmm. So you will need to just cut that fingernail area. And if your fingernails are cut very close to your meat, you won't see any of like maybe white, white, translucent areas when you put your hand up to the sun. Just think about it. You wouldn't want a dog guillotine cutter to cut it. You don't wanna cut it because you don't know where your flesh is and then it's gonna bleed. So just like, our trim, our dog toenails and cat toenails, um, you have to want chow where you're clipping so that you don't clip the quick K-W-I-C-K, which is where the blood vessels shoot out. So some people, if they want to, they can't cut the spur out entirely because if you look at that photograph, there's a bone in there. So if you do a guillotine cut, you're actually cutting bone. You'll be having an open, like a fracture, and so mm-hmm. Bacteria can go in there because you know it's on the foot. So they're gonna be near the ground, their poop or whatever. Bacteria can get in there and you can have some infection of the bulb. Which is bad for the bird.

Carey: 10:28

Yeah, that'll be really bad.

Dr. Morishita: 10:30

Yeah. So the best way to do is you gotta hold your bird up. You can take it to a dark room or shine, a bright light, like you do for, um, ling and see where you have the, um, where you can see that it's just the nail. Then maybe put a little sharpie pen, permanent marker there. So when you take your bird out, you can just get like a drill and um, kind of sand that down. You could use your guillotine cutters, but again there's different type of dog nail clippers, so you'd have to get the INE one, but you've gotta make sure that you see it, you know? Rems are always some of the better tools to use. I think if people are not used to, you might get some training from, you know, your veterinarian or something or do that because you never, it's pain. It's pain. I think the old method, people used to like try to take, twist it off, not a good thing. It's like pulling out your fingernail. You know that sore

Carey: 11:39

ow Like the thought of that just,

Dr. Morishita: 11:43

yeah. You see we're talking about like torture topics today.

Carey: 11:46

Yeah.

Dr. Morishita: 11:47

Yeah.

Carey: 11:48

So I cheat the brain when I have to trim spurs, I use a piece of five eights inch thick aluminum, got holes drilled in it. And it's on a piece of flat bar, so it is screwed to a piece of wood out in the chicken yard. And I stick the spur through that and I have a really, really fine tooth saw, and I cut it with that because five eights of an inches more than past that quick part Like I've had ingrown toenails before and that just seems like an extreme amount of pain. So I err on the side of caution when it comes to cutting those, because that's gotta hurt.

Dr. Morishita: 12:39

When you think about it, why do they have spurs? They have spurs for defense. You know, they're defending their hen flock or something, right? So in order actually, like, they always say like, do you really want aggressive roosters? You know, I mean, the really aggressive ones that, you know, you might have to take the top of a trash can and or carry a broom when you're out there. But, one of the ways that you can manage from having aggressive rooster is. You might probably don't want just one rooster. If you can have more birds, then you probably wanna have two roosters, because then they fight among themselves and they don't fight with you for dominance, but then you have to think about if you have roosters, if you have little kids around your children or your grandchildren, you don't wanna have very aggressive roosters moving, and it's not their fault. They're not aggressive, they're just being protective of their HeLOCK. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a natural thing. It's a visual thing that, you know, it maybe the females are more attractive to, um, not only by the combs and wattles, but also maybe the size of their spurs too, but so always think about, are there other ways I can use, or do I want to breed aggressive birds, into the flock. So always know what other things you can do to manage that, because, I'm sure nobody wants like a fingernail pulled out. Ugh. Quit saying that. We trim it, you know, just the,

Carey: 14:14

all of that just sends chills on my spine,

Dr. Morishita: 14:18

file it down, you know. But really in the action of a defense, and I've only read. Someone like in Southeast Asia, I believe it was Thailand, there's a report of somebody being killed by the spurs of a peacock and they were feeding them and they were like in a confined area. So if you do have very aggressive, sometimes maybe you need to wear hats or don't corner them to make them feel defensive. You know, because even if you trim your spur or if it's a sharp spur, that blood thing can also go into your temple too,

Carey: 15:00

yeah. It's just

Dr. Morishita: 15:01

instead of being a pokey thing, puncturing you, it'll be a dull puncture, you know? So if you need to have aggressive rooster, you might wear. Protective covering around your or something,

Carey: 15:14

Keep your head on a swivel when you're out there taking care of them.

Dr. Morishita: 15:17

Yeah. You gotta watch.

Jennifer: 15:20

Alright, well let's move to the other end and talk about Combs. Combs, well, Combs and waddles. So can you tell us about the purpose of the combs and Waddles?

Dr. Morishita: 15:32

Well, the combs and Waddles are like you know, I would say they would have two functions. One would be that they are vascularized, which means they have a lot of blood vessels there. And so oftentimes you can see like the different colors of the combs. Some are pale, some when they're cold or whatever, but usually when they're active it's bright red'cause there's a lot of blood vessels there. And so like combs and models. They help to dissipate the heat because as you know, birds cannot sweat and so they help dissipate the heat for the bird. They're also for attracting the pens, you know, the more dominant roosters have probably larger combs, brighter red, and that would be attracted to the head. Except in the case, if you only have one rooster, it really doesn't matter, I guess. Right?

Jennifer: 16:30

Yeah.

Carey: 16:31

They don't have a lot of choices then

Jennifer: 16:34

what about dubbing them, cutting off the cones and waddles?

Dr. Morishita: 16:39

So the question is, why would we want to cut off the combs and waddles and probably fighting among. Head makes or damage to the home. Mm-hmm. The other thing is that if you are involved in gamecock fighting, you probably wanna dub that because that are areas of the birds, this is a illegal activity, but you might do that so that when they're fighting, I guess they don't attack that part or get a hold of the bird and then, jab'em with the spurs. Mm-hmm. So you would see dubbing in that probably for those, or for those people raising old word gang birds. Maybe they, some people prefer it dubbed or

Carey: 17:29

not.

Dr. Morishita: 17:30

Other people might dub because they're worried about frostbite. But if you're gonna be dubbed that thing in an adult bird. Is full of blood vessels. That ain't gonna be a pretty site cutting that off, maybe cutting. It'd be like similar to cutting your ear lobe.

Jennifer: 17:50

Okay. So what age do you dub them?

Dr. Morishita: 17:54

I would say that you would dub them early on when they're very young and it's not. You just use a, like a dubbing scissors or regular surgical scissors and cut it aseptic, which is clean. And then you would cut it off. Um, people don't know the procedure. You can always talk to your veterinarian, but you know, we try to do, if only if you really need it,

Jennifer: 18:25

I would imagine that hurts.

Dr. Morishita: 18:27

Yes. Like maybe cutting off your ear wall.

Jennifer: 18:31

Yes. I don't know, I don't have these kinds of animals, so I just, I know these questions are out there because it gets done, but they don't have firsthand knowledge with it.

Carey: 18:42

Well, I know like people that show game foul, part of their standard. Requires that adult birds be trimmed, which I always thought was weird, but yeah,

Dr. Morishita: 18:58

you probably wanna do it in a day of age. When they're small, there's some blood vessels of course, but not a lot. And a bigger wound, you know, I know turkeys, some are deputed. especially in commercial production, they have a little sno just above their external between their eyes in that little fleshy tag. usually they remove it in commercial production day of age. then they won't have that large, dangling because if your property has. This bacteria called syphilis. it can cause that sno to get inflamed and swollen like a sausage male turkeys are always fighting each other and see that dangling like a worm. So they're attracted of like, pecking at it. that's how the bacteria gets in there. makes swollen. And unfortunately the birds die because bacteria goes septic throughout the body.

Jennifer: 20:01

Well, I have a lot of turkeys and I just learned something completely new. I had no idea people cut their SNS off

Dr. Morishita: 20:10

for the commercial ones. Where you have a lot of turkeys in a building

Carey: 20:14

like the broad breasted. Type that are bred for commercial production, like they'll cut those off,

Dr. Morishita: 20:23

Because, you know, they have a lot of turkeys in a confined area and as they grow and mature into the Tom Turkeys, you're gonna see that like little worm moving around and they'll start pecking at their pen mates, peck at each other. You might not see that in backyard flocks because most people would want to. See the smooth and they probably more access to space. Or they don't have that many males together. As you know, in any bird species. The males are more aggressive to each other.

Jennifer: 21:24

Okay, so in the winter time, does Vaseline really help prevent frostbite on the wattles in the C?

Dr. Morishita: 21:33

Well, initially you might think because, oh oil, we keep the coal away, but it really doesn't because if we remember earlier on that birds do not sweat and remember I was telling you about the comb. That's how they dissipate heat. And they need to have it, otherwise they can't release any body heat. And so if you put the Vaseline there, sometimes, if the birds might have moisture, and then so you've got water trapped underneath there and depending on what temperature, they will freeze too. So actually it might even make your frostbite worse, but when we talk about frostbite. The best thing to do is to provide a coup during the winter time for your birds to come in and, um, that tube has to have good ventilation because we don't want high ammonia levels, otherwise we've got respiratory problems. But birds can survive very cold temperatures if they're protected. From the wind and rain or snow, which is water. And so that's the thing that causes things to freeze. So you keep them in there, you insulate the house well, just for the winter time. But actually most people, if you keep your birds free range outside, you wanna keep your birds indoor because of predators. Unless you have, vegetation or bushes around that they can hide. But you know, nobody wants you know, your predators, foxes, yotes bears that come around and eat. The chickens while they're sleeping. You even have great horn owls. So most times you would, people, if you keep your birds outside, free range, whatever, you'd wanna keep'em indoors. Exhibition birds, maybe outside in cages. You wanna find some kind of protective area during the winter. The other thing people say is that if you've got very cold winter, you might wanna get cold heart birds. Those that are used to the cold rather than Mediterranean breeds, like a leghorn would not do well in the cold. They are single comb, large comb birds, and so they can get frostbite. They're raised in the cold temperature, but the best way to prevent frostbite is to provide shelter that no exposure to the wind and some water source.

Jennifer: 24:04

Okay, let's assume they do get frostbite. What could we do for them?

Dr. Morishita: 24:11

So the first thing, like if, the temperature went down. the next morning you should look at the combs. Of the birds and you know, like the early initial stages of frostbite, the might look pale and waxy. the later stages when there is bad frostbite, there is necrosis of the tips. So those are just dead tissue. That thing is gonna fall off. Just like people that have frostbite on their toes, it's gonna. Falling off. So there's not really anything

Jennifer: 24:43

you can do at that

Dr. Morishita: 24:44

point. So if you've got it black already, if they're kind of white and waxy, you wanna warm them up because just like people that get frostbite, you can't, like somebody is very cold and the toes are blue or something like that. You can't heat them right away and put direct heat. That even causes worse. If you've learned in first aid for frostbite. So the best thing is to warm them up gradually. No direct heat on the tissue. But that's in the early stages. Once you see that black thing that's like frostbite, just, um,

Carey: 25:19

just

Dr. Morishita: 25:19

there, white people, you'd lose your toes.

Jennifer: 25:22

I had a coach in a couple years ago and he got frostbite. He wasn't named yet because I wasn't for sure I was gonna keep him, but he got frostbite and he lost all the tips on his. Comb and he looked like he had a eighties mohawk afterwards. It was just really smooth. So I named him Frosty. and he went on to be a good breeder for somebody because it wasn't genetic and he's

Dr. Morishita: 25:48

a cosmetic issue.

Jennifer: 25:50

Exactly. he just couldn't be shown at that point.

Dr. Morishita: 25:53

But you know. Like when we see darkened tips on the stuff, we always have to think is this frostbite rule out petmate fighting? But the other thing is like Ergotism mycotoxin the fungus or that causes ergot disease. And that would be the only other thing that would cause the necrosis of the tip. But hopefully people are keeping their um. Chicken feed, um, properly stored. But that's another thing, Ergon.

Jennifer: 26:27

All right. The last physical trait we're gonna talk about is trimming the nails in the beaks.

Dr. Morishita: 26:33

Oh, trimming the nails and the beak. So if you are having all, usually this is a problem with birds kept and cage. That they don't have anything to wear down their nails. So what you would do is, um, similar to your spur, those are like toenails too. And so you would just cut where you don't see the quick. Of the nail.

Jennifer: 27:05

Yeah, that's pretty easy. I do that when I'm taking'em to a show. But the beaks, everybody always has questions about the beaks and trimming a beak is very different than what the commercial layer houses do, which is called deaking.

Dr. Morishita: 27:21

So there's deaking where they actually cut. The beak when the birds are a day of age, but that, is very, the birds sometimes have a hard time to eat. Other people would say it's cruelty. But that thing has been used to try to prevent cannibalism. But that is like a actual cut to right in front of the Aries. And probably best done again at the younger age rather than older. But you need to leave at least more than nickels with, um, from the ex. Extraordinary. But that is commercial. Yes. Now, if you talk about trimming this, usually you might see problems in parrots, or chickens. Sometimes it is a genetic defect and the birds are born with scissors, beak, you know, where they're not aligned. Because normally the upper beak and lower beak, the tip of the beak should, um, match. If they don't match, that could probably be a genetic defect in that breed. So you might have to make, do I want to keep. That as a breed or not, you can keep it as a bird, but just know that these type of birds need to eat more mash feed. And you should have a lot because if there's very few food in your feed tray they're gonna have a hard time to eat with that malformation of the beak structure. But if you had a lot of mash food, a lot of food, those birds can survive. By eating, because the main thing is that they need to eat food and periodically you look at them to make sure that there's no food buildup that can cause you know, food building up in the area that would

Carey: 29:21

like an impacted crop or something along those lines. Right?

Dr. Morishita: 29:24

might rot and it might smell, so you pick up your, those birds often. So I said that could be a genetic defect, but it also could be from injury, something hitting, getting stuck in a wire gauge cage or something, and causing trauma. And then the beak will be off. So for that life of the bird, you need to trim that. if the beak is so now aligned, it won't get back to normal. And so the beaks don't. Match so they can't wear it down. So that's where you might have to file it down before they get very severe and they can't eat. As it grows and curves, that's a little harder because it's harder to see where you're not gonna hit blood vessels.

Jennifer: 30:18

Yeah. I use, um, like a metal file. And you just go slow and just keep trimming. Just a little bit of hair dust off at a time until it gets where you need it to be.

Dr. Morishita: 30:33

Oh, you can do, mm-hmm. Okay.

Jennifer: 30:37

I have

Dr. Morishita: 30:39

aclusion.

Jennifer: 30:40

I have another question that wasn't on your list, so we're gonna go off the top of your head for this one. You ready? Uh oh. I saw it in a group on Facebook, and I just, I looked it up, and I don't think it's true, but I wanna get your opinion. Somebody said that if the waddle was missing on a male chicken, it would be sterile, true or false.

Dr. Morishita: 31:06

I would think that is false.

Jennifer: 31:11

I would say there's no correlation. Right?

Dr. Morishita: 31:14

Well, because you remember, we could cut the water off. So by that token,

Jennifer: 31:19

it would be false. What if it was hatched that way, would it still not make a difference?

Dr. Morishita: 31:26

I don't think so. I don't know of any research that would correlate the testes with the appendage. Yeah. Or testosterone would make it bigger or red, or blood vessels in there. But nothing like it disappears. It wouldn't. I told him I didn't,

Jennifer: 31:44

still have your called. I told him. I called, I said it was a myth. I didn't believe it at all

Carey: 31:51

because like there's a lot of people that raise game file that dubbed their birds, and there's no way they would do that if their birds were sterile after they dubbed them.

Dr. Morishita: 32:01

And then if you, if they were let's say that they didn't have that because they didn't have. Testosterone. Well, they wouldn't be fighting birds, wouldn't they? Because they'd be all like,

Carey: 32:12

that's true too.

Jennifer: 32:14

They'll be couch potatoes.

Carey: 32:17

Yeah, they'd become a couch potato.

Jennifer: 32:19

Oh, here's another one. Bringing that up one more and then we'll call it a day. Um, what do you think about cap coupons? Do you think people should do that, or is that reserved for vet to do?

Dr. Morishita: 32:32

No, I outta curiosity of those old male catalogs, I remember buying a izing kit and so basically it was a bunch of ropes and scalpel blade, you know, like a really primitive, that was the older days. Mm-hmm. I would not do that because the testes are located in the body of a bird. Just opening and causing an open wound and, and taking that out is not a good thing. You probably could lose your bird and these kind of surgeries should be done, you know, in a veterinary office if you need to do it. It's just like somebody got somebody and they opened them up and they took out their kidneys.

Carey: 33:21

Yeah you would want that done in at least a remotely clean environment, and then that bird would need to stay in at least a remotely clean environment until it heals up, or you're just asking for infection and a long laundry list of other stuff. I don't think the risk would be worth it. No, just hatch more so you can get some hands.

Dr. Morishita: 33:45

When you think about it, what is the big reason that you would wanna keep Anize your rooster? Are you raising them for meat?

Jennifer: 33:54

Yeah, meat,

Carey: 33:56

yeah. The roosters are bigger, but I can say that. If you separate'em out, as soon as you can tell who's who and put all the roosters together with no hen they don't fight. Mm-hmm. Now, I mean if it's genetic for some to be aggressive, then yeah. But like a Rhode Island red, or you know, a barred rock or in Orpington they're not gonna do it.

Dr. Morishita: 34:26

No, because there's nobody to be competitive against. For what? Nothing. They're all loose up. Right? Mm-hmm.

Jennifer: 34:34

Well, Dr. M has been a pleasure. You can go back into your secret service in my six status now, okay?

Carey: 34:45

I do appreciate you coming on and talking to us about these. I learned some stuff myself. I did not realize that about the Crested Birds.

Jennifer: 34:54

So,

Carey: 34:54

yeah, I didn't realize that about turkeys either. I didn't know they cut that off. I just thought it was like a bread end mutation or something. Like everything else.

Jennifer: 35:02

Do they put it on a key chain? Like they do rabbit feet?

Carey: 35:06

No.

Jennifer: 35:07

Oh, we're just being, you might

Carey: 35:08

find it on eBay. You can get just about everything else there.

Jennifer: 35:12

Exactly. I, you can freeze dry it. Why? Is it a delicacy or something? No, I mean, if you wanna preserve as a key chain. Oh, gotcha.

Dr. Morishita: 35:25

I'm good, But thank you for thought. Yeah. Like for commercial birds, not, because most people like to see that snoog.

Jennifer: 35:34

Yes. All right. Well we appreciate you. Thank you.

Dr. Morishita: 35:38

Okay. Thank you.