Chicken Beak Trimming
As the chickens in my life were the original inspiration for this site I thought I’d better take a minute to explain my chicken situation. I already told a bit of the story of how I came to have chickens,here.
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My current arrangement includes my second flock of 10, which started out as 28. Six turned out to be roosters, three died as babies, one died as an adult (I am assuming she died from either a bound egg or possibly from eating mouse poison), and eight were given to a friend because I didn’t have room for them. In March we purchased our third batch of chicks (6 buff Orpingtons and 2 Rhode Island Reds). As soon as these chicks were old enough to move out of the garage I took my 10 full grown birds and added them to the 6 birds (3 RR Reds, 3 Leghorns) living at my Parents barn. The integration process took a few days but after some work we managed to get all the birds living on good terms with one another. We even added a few turkeys and ducks to the mix!
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About six weeks ago one of my three Mille Fleur d’uccle Hens started acting strange. She wouldn’t come out of the chicken coop, she never pecked at the ground, and she stayed as far away from the other birds as possible. At first I didn’t worry about it too much but she continued to digress so I caught her and tried to figure out what was wrong. Upon picking her up I knew instantly she wasn’t getting enough to eat. She is a bantam so she doesn’t weigh much as it is but I felt like I was holding a small handful of feathers. As I looked her over I noticed her beak was extremely long. Just to be sure I caught one of the other Mille Fleur’s to compare. Sure enough the sick birds beak was much longer than that of the healthy bird. We decided it was time for her to go on a little vacation back to the house.
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With her top beak approximately the same length as her lower beak she is now able to pick up grain again.
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With her top beak approximately the same length as her lower beak she is now able to pick up grain again.
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I wish I could say her beak trimming has completely fixed her but I am sure the long beak was a result of her not feeling well, rather than the cause. Most chickens are able to keep their beaks the right size and shape because they peck at the ground all day long and the pecking acts as a file to keep a nice smooth point. This particular hen wasn’t pecking so her beak wasn’t being filed down. Although she is doing better (eating better, and socializing outside the coop a little more) I am still not sure what is wrong with her. She did endure a rather upsetting experience with a 4-year old so I’m thinking that was the beginning of the problem. I highly doubt she has a Common Chicken Disease as most poultry illnesses spread throughout the flock and all of my other chickens seem healthy. For now we will continue to push her outside for some fresh air and clean dirt to peck in. Beak trimming may be required again if she doesn’t start pecking regularly.
