Chick missing upper portion of beak...

[mamaboyd]

I have a one week old chick who is missing the upper part of its beak. It was fine the other day, but tonight my 9 yr old came running in to tell me that it was missing it. I thought he was seeing things as this morning I didn't notice anything wrong. The little one seems to be eating fine etc and looks healthy. Has anybody else had a problem like this and do you think it will survive?? Will I have to feed it separately or do/make something different for it's food to make it easier to eat.

Thanks! I've never come across this before with the rest of my chickens and I feel badly that I didn't notice it sooner...but with 12~ 2 month ols chicks, 27~1 month old chicks and theses 19~ 1 week old chicks and my 13 big chickens, I sometimes find it hard to catch everything especially at meal time

 

[swtangel321]

Wow !!!! Ive never heard of this either, hmmm... Do you have a pic ? Do you think its upper beak was ever there or do you think "somthing" happend ? ( must of been there at some point it made its way out of the egg )

 

[mamaboyd]

I'll have to try a post later in the morning. It's 1:10 am here, lol and my babies are all sleeping. Something must have happened to it's beak as it was fine yesterday. Maybe it go pecked by one of the older girls in the big coop if it stuck it's beak through the brooder netting, which is odd because we've never had a problem with our older girls doing that before. I would never have noticed if my son hadn't picked the chick up and brought it into to the house to show me. When I fed them supper tonight, it seemed to be getting right in there and chowing down. Do beaks grow back?? I feel like a bad mommy for not noticing sooner

 

[coffeelady3]

The only advice I've heard for this kind of problem is that chickens with beak deformities need a deeper dish for their food to make eating a little easier.

 

[mamaboyd]

Thanks!! I still have hope for the little one, so I'll try the deeper dish to see if it helps.

It just looks so weird missing the top part of the beak, makes me wonder how it can eat anything

 

[swtangel321]

I know that if you de-beak a chicken correctly ( I KNOW YOU DIDNT DO THAT, JUST COMPAIRING) it wont grow back, but if you trim a beak it will, so i'm wondering if the beak will act like a de-beaked chicks/chickens beak would. Just a thought !!!!! Try to post some pics tommrow, I know it's late its 1:42 here I can barley type anymore let alone spell !!!

 

[Nugget]

Are you saying the entire upper beak is broken off? An injury like that should have bled. My sweet little Twinkie had the tip (about 4mm) broken off the end of her upper beak when an adult got her between the bars of her pen. As it grew back it looked as though it was going to develop into a crossbill, then corrected itself before I needed to trim it. The tip will grow back, but if it's broken off far back it will be like a 'debeaked' hen and could be permanent

 

[coffeelady3]

The purpose of the deeper dish is that it's easier for them to 'shovel' food into their beak. She should do just fine...although she may end up with a face that only a mother can love!

 

[mamaboyd]

Thanks everyone!! I wasn't able to get a pic today, so many things going on here. I will get one tomorrow to post. From what I can see the entire upper beak is missing but here was no sign of blood. The chick is still eating and doing well so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It will be one of my "Special" babies that I will have to keep... I don't think I could ever raise it for meat knowing how precious it is.

 

[mamaboyd]

Finally able to post a few pics of my poor chick.

I found another chick with the same problem...wish I knew what was going on. We've raised 2 previous hatches of chicks in the same brooder in with the big chickens and haven't had this happen before.