My Chicken's Beak has grown so long she is having problems eating.

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mkeawsh

mkeawsh

Woody Hollow
15 Years
Sep 23, 2007
502
213
331
Beaufort, MO
My Polish hen's beak has grown so unusually long that it is starting to curl under. Is there something I can do for her? I don't think she is eating as much as she should and would. She is going to starve to death if I don't do something. Or is it more humane for me to cull her instead of watching her work so hard at eating?
 
No need to cull her. Wrap her up in a towel for easy handling and slowly file her beak back. I use a nail clipper first then file to shape but if you're uncomfortable with a clipper then just use a file. I've done that many a time.
 
Yep just clip it with fingernail clippers. It is just like a nail is to us. Just don't clip to far back cause it has a qwik just like our finger does also. You can file to shape if you want to or let her do it. she will get it into shape in just a couple of days on her own if you give her a rock or something to scrape it on. I kept a dowel wrapped in sandpaper for my Starling and he kept his trimmed pretty good.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for the responses. Will do it immediately tomorrow. I sincerely appreciate the help.
smile.png
 
A dremmel works well too. Is the beak growing at an angle (cross beak or scissor beak) - meaning the bottom beak is being pushed sideways, or is the top beak just too long- but is still aligned with the bottom beak. Can you post a photo from the front and the side?
 
Trim her beak and provide a deep bowl of moistened feed so that she can plunge her beak into it and eat more easily.
 
I Just had to trim Honeycombs beak cause it was getting really long and making it difficult for him to eat also, I used to dog nail clippers and it clipped him perfectly. I guess I will have to keep a good check on him from now on. Its funny that I look at him everyday and didn't notice it before. but then again it took me over a year to realize that one of my Speckled sussex has one brown eye and one blue eye guess Ive never looked at both sides of her face at the same time. LOL But really just trim her up and she'll be fine.
 
Quote:
Actually her bottom beak has been misaligned since she has been about 20 weeks old and she is now13 months. The bottom beak seemed to happen all of a sudden. I figured one of the other chickens jumped on her or she got injured some way while free-ranging. Her top beak has been totally straight and still is. It just started growing like this in the past couple months. I will try to get pics but she is quite skittish - way more than any of my others. As a matter of fact, I am going to have to wait until tonight when she is bedded down to go in there and get her. She will eat out of my hand with the others but am aware if I am getting too close to her with my hands.
 

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