Column: what would granddad do?

Not so long ago, we performed 4 different treatments on males (beaks, comb, spurs and toes) and 1 on females (beaks). If you add up the number of open wounds in males (2 beaks, 1 comb, 2 spurs, and 2 or 4 toes), you come to a total of 7 to 9 wounds per day-old chick. This is on top of the Marek vaccination. Trying to make sense of this, it is unbelievable that the majority of the males survived the rearing period. Every treatment is an open wound and a possible entry point for bacteria, with a