I wound up with a few clipped-beak chicks the last time I bought chicks from the local commercial hatchery. Our hatchery's actually very good about NOT clipping beaks if the chick shipment is destined to be sold on through a middleman for backyard flock situations, but once in a while they have a bad hatch and have to make up the numbers with whatever's on hand. In my case I wound up with a mix of unclipped day-olds and several beak-clipped chicks that were already a couple of days old and which had obviously been held over as 'extras'. ANYWAY, the good news is that the only thing you absolutely need to do for your short-beaked hen is ensure that she always has access to a source of food that's kept in a container that offers it in such a way that the food is at least an inch and preferably even a couple of inches deep. Even some hanging feeders, the ones designed to cater to chicks and chicklets of varying ages may do...the 'bowl' that offers the food which the birds eat out of is often quite deep and roomy and can accommodate chickens with clipped beaks quite nicely.
As for what to feed, the regular krum or mash mixes you feed to your other birds are usually the easiest for clipped-beak birds to deal with, no alteration of the food itself required. Even pellets and scratch-type grain can be fed, as long as it's in a container and the amount being offered is deep enough that your hen can get her face right down into it. Hens with clipped beaks and even misaligned mandibles have the hardest time trying to pick up grain and other food items that's just lying in a single layer on a surface. It'd be like us trying to pick up a small item with tweezers, except that one of the tweezer halves has been cut back a quarter of an inch...you lose that grip! Despite that, do offer your lucky new hen the chance to forage, if you're in the habit of letting the other birds forage, and also let her join in when you toss or dole out the treats or grain or such. It's often quite amazing how even hens who essentially have no mandibles left at all will learn to adapt by grabbing such things as grass stems with the sides of their mouths and flipping their heads to tear a bite off. And of course they love being handed a goodie directly or being able to burrow their mouths into a mound of food in a little bowl you're holding just for them.
Good luck and thanks for being kind enough to take in a disabled hen! Be sure to pull her aside and feed her a little bowlful of mashed hard-boiled egg for me every day or so for a while to help fatten her up too. In my experience there's no better diet supplement available, it's always natural and fresh and available, and I've never met a chicken who'd turn it down. Eggs are what chickens are made from, after all.
As for what to feed, the regular krum or mash mixes you feed to your other birds are usually the easiest for clipped-beak birds to deal with, no alteration of the food itself required. Even pellets and scratch-type grain can be fed, as long as it's in a container and the amount being offered is deep enough that your hen can get her face right down into it. Hens with clipped beaks and even misaligned mandibles have the hardest time trying to pick up grain and other food items that's just lying in a single layer on a surface. It'd be like us trying to pick up a small item with tweezers, except that one of the tweezer halves has been cut back a quarter of an inch...you lose that grip! Despite that, do offer your lucky new hen the chance to forage, if you're in the habit of letting the other birds forage, and also let her join in when you toss or dole out the treats or grain or such. It's often quite amazing how even hens who essentially have no mandibles left at all will learn to adapt by grabbing such things as grass stems with the sides of their mouths and flipping their heads to tear a bite off. And of course they love being handed a goodie directly or being able to burrow their mouths into a mound of food in a little bowl you're holding just for them.
Good luck and thanks for being kind enough to take in a disabled hen! Be sure to pull her aside and feed her a little bowlful of mashed hard-boiled egg for me every day or so for a while to help fatten her up too. In my experience there's no better diet supplement available, it's always natural and fresh and available, and I've never met a chicken who'd turn it down. Eggs are what chickens are made from, after all.
Maybe yolk ... sometimes. The one good thing about beaks is that they grow back. Pictures would really help. Best wishes
