beaks loooooooooong

[anthonyjames]

I am wondering if any one has had layers that have some extremely long beaks? I have one bird that I noticed for the first time and I saw that it is about 1/2 longer than bottom, curled over and split about half way up.

Can this be trimmed with like a dog nail trimmer?

 

[paddock36]

I have never done it but a friend of mine has and said it's easier to do with regular nail clippers and just clip the end, be careful not to clip to far just like regular nails or it will bleed. If you hold the beak in front of light you can usually see the lightest part that should be clipped.

 

[anthonyjames]

paddock,

Thanks. I will give it a try this weekend.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

it's normal to get one out of say 25 who's beaks grow funny and need to be trimmed on a regular basis. trimming can also help a cross beaked bird live, eat and produce eggs (not that you would want to hatch them), or make it to butcher size.
I use a hand held trimmer that you get in the nail clipper section of the store but it looks like a mini pair of hmm not sure how to describe it, like nippers or branch trimmers. It works really well. There is a "quick" in the beak and if you trim into that it will bleed and clearly hurts. So best to do a little at a time.

 

[blueskylen]

i have one poor chicken that now looks like a duck - her beak has started to curl up at the ends and makes it difficult for her to eat - i was afraid to try timming it, but will give it a try. i had bought 4 production reds that had their beaks trimmed before i bought them and they all have some trouble eating - whoever did it did a very poor job.

 

[95yj]

Quote:
i believe you are referring to a clikpped beak, where they cut off the front of both the top and bottom beak to prevent picking, but correct me if i'm wrong. Beak clipping is something different, you only take off a small amount, it doesn't hurt the bird or cause blood (it's like clipping fingernails) and only the very tip is removed.