Beak Not Closing, Heredity

[Henrik Petersson]

Hello!

My rooster's beak halves are slightly askew, so he can't fully close his mouth. There is always a tiny slit open, you can see it in this image:

When I've looked more closely at him, the problem seems to be that the upper half is too narrow/the lower half too wide. He doesn't seem to suffer from it, but nevertheless, it's not a trait I'd like to pass on. What is the heredity with this problem? I'm thinking about letting him have offspring, then killing the one's who've inherited it, and hopefully be rid of the issue.

 

[Squishychicken]

looks to me like it looks like he has scissor beak.the birds can survive they just need their beaks trimmed occasionly and deeper waterer and feeders.they will eventually learn to scoop up the feed with there beaks.

 

[junebuggena]

It's called scissor beak. Your rooster has a very subtle one, with a very slight misalignment. Usually, it is much more pronounced, making it difficult for a bird to eat or drink. It's associated with muff gene. My theory is that there is something about the muff gene that makes it more difficult to metabolize particular vitamins. I've noticed that chicks seem perfectly normal at hatch, but then start to develop the scissor beak at about 1 week of age. I've found that with supplemental vitamins, you can minimize the severity while chicks are very young. Once they are over 3 weeks of age, vitamins do not help at all. Without supplemental vitamins, the misalignment can worsen rapidly and can lead to the chick's death. It's just something that is part and parcel when it comes to breeding birds with muffs. It's a recessive trait, that will always plague your breeding program. It's best to remove from the breeding group any birds with misaligned beaks, regardless of how subtle it is.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

It's called scissor beak. Your rooster has a very subtle one, with a very slight misalignment. Usually, it is much more pronounced, making it difficult for a bird to eat or drink. It's associated with muff gene. My theory is that there is something about the muff gene that makes it more difficult to metabolize particular vitamins. I've noticed that chicks seem perfectly normal at hatch, but then start to develop the scissor beak at about 1 week of age. I've found that with supplemental vitamins, you can minimize the severity while chicks are very young. Once they are over 3 weeks of age, vitamins do not help at all. Without supplemental vitamins, the misalignment can worsen rapidly and can lead to the chick's death. It's just something that is part and parcel when it comes to breeding birds with muffs. It's a recessive trait, that will always plague your breeding program. It's best to remove from the breeding group any birds with misaligned beaks, regardless of how subtle it is.

Very interesting. Since it's a recessive trait, I should theoretically be able to breed it away, but it seems to me that it's less of a hassle to just get another rooster.

 

[Star and eclipsa]

What's a muff?

 

[Henrik Petersson]

What's a muff?

Part of the "beard".

The beard is under the "chin". The muffs are soft fluff sticking out horizontally from under the eye area. I guess you can have one without the other, but have never seen it in my Ameraucanas or EEs.

 

[junebuggena]

What's a muff?

The fluffy cheeks.

 

[junebuggena]

Very interesting. Since it's a recessive trait, I should theoretically be able to breed it away, but it seems to me that it's less of a hassle to just get another rooster.

It's very hard to breed it out, since birds can carry the gene but don't express it. You'll never be able to figure out which birds are carrying and which aren't. So it just keeps getting passed along, popping up years later.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

It's very hard to breed it out, since birds can carry the gene but don't express it. You'll never be able to figure out which birds are carrying and which aren't. So it just keeps getting passed along, popping up years later.

Seems more and more like a bad idea, then.

Gosh darnit. This rooster that was so good in all other ways. We get a lot of problems with frostbite here, so I really want a rooster with rose or pea comb. And we've had issues with scaly leg mite, twisted toes, gout and rooster aggression, and this rooster has nether.

 

[junebuggena]

Gout is an easy one to solve. There are two main causes for gout. One is too much calcium in the diet, which is easy to avoid. Just don't feed layer feed and let your hens regulate their own calcium intake via crushed oyster shell. The other main cause is too much protein. Also easily avoided if you keep them on a feed with less than 25% protein content.
Twisted toes is most commonly caused by improper humidity levels during incubation, but may also be caused by insufficient nutrients in the yolk of the egg. It's rarely a genetic issue.
Rooster aggression is greatly reduced if you've got a few battleaxe hens in the flock to beat manners into the boys while they are going through puberty.
Crested Swedish Flower may be a good choice, since the crest has an inhibiting effect on the size of the comb. You also need to make sure your coop has plenty of ventilation to reduce moisture inside.