Deformed beak....

[bearded bloke]

Thinking of renaming Miss Norway to Harriet,every time I turn around she out & about,damned Houdini chook

Is it OK to "file" the lower beak with a coarse emery card ? it is about 8mm longer than the top beak & she (Captain Beaky) has great difficulty picking up wheat grain of the ground Kentucky (also clipped) can pick up easily with a 4mm difference in length,so was thinking of filing Beaky back to about the same.

[Suechooks]

Personally I've never touched the lower beak - it normally rights itself.

[bearded bloke]

Hokey dokey Sue,I will watch & see how it goes for a while longer then

[Nicos]

Have you a piccie of the beak BB?

I had a twisty beak a couple of years back which we had to hand feed. He got very tame but would never have made it without help. ( He made a lovely casserole too! )

[bearded bloke]

Back soon

*BB wanders off to find a camera

[bearded bloke]

I'm back

Picture is a bit blurred due to maxing out the in camera zoom & crop,will try & get a better one during the day.




Viewed from above she is also very slightly cross billed.but she is eating unaided (got a deep bowl for her pellets) & seems to be healthy & happy,it quite possibly concerns me more

[Nicos]

Gosh- that's quite a big difference isn't it????

Twiskybeak's cross-over got progressively worse as he got older. By the time he was 24 weeks he couldn't feed himself and we spend a good half hour a day hand feeding him. His tongue started to dry out too so it was a no-win situation. We just fed him for the pot and culled him a couple of weeks before the rest of the boys.
How old is your gal?

[RichmondHens]

I'd certainly try and do something about that. That looks quite an undershot. Also if the other hen has a 4 mm one she needs sorting too even if she can currently eat ok. With her you will probably be able to file it down although I doubt an emery would be tough enough, you might need a rasp or similar. Miss Beaky may need hers clipping, I think you would find it hard to file 8 mm down and she may not tolerate being held for that long. Once they are back to normal length try feeding treats on a hard surface (stone, concrete) to encourage natural wear.

I'm curious, what sort of hens are they/where did they come from? I suspect a degree of poor breeding for young hens to have such badly shaped beaks.

[vicky]

I've one with a very twisted beak (an ex batt) who's slightly smaller but totally ok. It gives her a sneer!

[Suechooks]

If you start doing something about the beak be really careful or get someone who's experienced to help you out. Its quite a difference but presumably she's managed this long without too much bother? Or is she underweight?

[bearded bloke]

Not sure on age Nicos,I forgot to ask but they were all brought as POL (no eggs yet though).Would it be an idea if I were to get more & decent pic's of them all & start a thread to act as a point of reference to others ?

RH,any idea where I may be able to get some clippers ? or if there is someone in the west midlands who would have a pair ? or be prepared to trim for me ?

[bearded bloke]

Sue,she is only (visibly) marginally smaller than her "sister" from the same clutch,not tried weighing her though.

[Glutton4...]

Some of my ex-Batts have had odd beaks. Several have had clipped uppers, but have managed to eat unaided. One had a slightly twisted 'bite' but also managed to feed perfectly well. I did wonder if they would need attention, but so far so good, and the clipped beaks evened out in time.

[Nicos]

Would it be an idea if I were to get more & decent pic's of them all & start a thread to act as a point of reference to others ?

......done

[bearded bloke]

Cheers Nicos,will get some decent pic's at weekend when wifey is here daylight hours to hold them