Ok......this may sound completely weird......
I have an injured RIR that has been separated from the other girls since late August....waiting patiently for her feathers to return. Today, I noticed that her beak (top- not bottom) seems longer than the other girls. It seems like she has about 1/4 inch of extra white beak at the end.
????
Could this be because she doesn't have to peck and scratch as much as the others?? Am I imagining things? Is there anything that can be done? Will it continue to grow? I had a parakeet in my youth that had a really long beak - was told they needed to be trimmed - not wanting to go there with a chicken.....
Any thoughts?
Beak question
I have a hen the same way and she is free range. It does not seem to effect her eating.
Teresa,
I had the same concerns a month ago about a hen of mine. The chicken beak can grow too long and it can be trimmed, but I wouldn't do it unless its effecting her eating.
My girls beak has filed down just fine on its own since she's been able to free range again. Also, if you need to keep her in confinement and want to offer her something to file her beak on, put a brick in there. I put a cinder block in her confinement and set her food on it. She started filing away the same day. :)
Thanks so much.....thought I was going bananas.....glad to know others have had the same concern. I will put a block in today. I do let her free range sometimes, but not for long periods of time. I only let them free range when we are home, and the dogs are not out. Even then, I have to let her free range while the others are still penned up, so it doesn't amount to alot of time. My husband will be building a separate area for her (near the other ladies) in the next few weeks. Can't keep her in the shed in a dog kennel all winter -
Thanks for the help. I hope she figures it out. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to be the brightest bird we have - I think she might have suffered some kind of permanent damage when she had the head injury. :(
Teresa
I have trimmed the beak on one of my OEG that had about 1/2 an inch of very thin overgrowth - kind of like fingernail type of stuff. It was nearly transparent. I did it with a regular human nail clipper and made sure I didn't get into the thicker area of the beak at all. I just kind of made it match what looked normal on all my other birds' beaks.
Fingernail is exactly what it looks like.....very thin..... we put a block in today....will see how that goes. If it does need a trimming, my husband will be doing it. As I posted earlier, had to trim my parakeet's beak and the poor thing had a heart attack and died in my hand - WILL NOT DO THAT AGAIN!!
Plus, I figure I do both lab's nails....he can be in charge of beaks :)
Thanks for the tip on the clippers....
Teresa