This manipulation is applied to day-old chicks and involves the removal of the spurs of the legs of male birds by the use of hot wire. The reason why this manipulation is performed is that if this spur becomes very long, it is likely to injure the female bird during mating. When making a selection, it is desirable to choose male birds with short, blunt spurs, thus they will not need to be removed and there will be no need to perform this manipulation.