To successfully trim, take the bird in hand, having it on its back. I find that it is easier to trim birds if I have the head
pointing towards my body with the tail pointing out. The first thing I do is blow the feathers away from the vent area.

This serves two purposes:
1) Gives you a visual inspection of the vent area for readiness to breed.
2) Lets you view the guide feathers

It is essential that these feathers are not trimmed or pulled out.

HEN bird preparation: I identify the guide feathers, and start trimming the feathers just in front of the

vent area (belly side of the vent) ( see illustration). Do not trim in the direction of the belly. For if the hen is in breeding
condition or nearing it, you will notice as you blow the feathers out of the way, the belly area is becoming barer as
she approaches optimal breeding condition.

This is the brooding area and the feathers are normally lost in this area so that the hen can have the eggs in
direct contact with her skin surface. This provides for maximum heat to the eggs and the surround feathers will
trap this heat in to incubate the eggs.

After trimming just behind the vent I proceed to the side of the vent area. Here you want to take off feather bulk so
that those feathers do not overlay onto the guide feathers. I then trimmed towards the tail area. During the
trimming process I will keep blowing the feathers in the vent area to keep reassuring that the guide feathers are
out of the way of the scissors.

COCK bird preparation: The bird is handled in the same manner and again I blow the
feathers in the vent area to check for readiness and location of the guide feathers. However, with the male I start
trimming to the side of the vent area first then proceed to just below the vent area. (See illustration).

I then trim towards the belly. In the cock bird more of the belly feathers are trimmed to clear the way for the
guide feathers. If you look at the illustrations and think of the positions that the birds must assume
to mate it will become clear “How to vent trim”