Broken beak

[jennhalcyon]

hi everyone, today I noticed one of our Buff Orpingtons had a damaged beak.

I don't know what happened to her but I don't see any blood, but she does seem to be timid when eating. We hand fed her some cut corn and she seem to take that with no issues.

Will this healing on her own or should I be doing something for her??

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

It doesn't grow back or heal, that's why it isn't bleeding.

Try realigning it tomorrow and maybe put some QUICK dry super glue on the outside.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

I had a hen that this happened to recently also. Her beak did bleed, which is how I noticed it. She is doing just fine. I initially tried to glue the beak together, with a piece of a tea bag as support. It only lasted a day.

If she is eating and drinking normally, she will probably be just fine. You may want to isolate her to give her some softer food, maybe some scrambled eggs and such for a bit. Here is a pic of my girl when she busted her beak.

Again, my girl has been doing well and is still laying and acting normally. Her beak s growing in, but I haven't taken a closer look recently.

 

[jennhalcyon]

Super glue on the outside?

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Yep, nail glue is the same thing if you have some handy. The ingredient should be cyanoacrylate. Using a piece of a tea bag can be a little extra support also.

Just a little bit though!

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

Super glue on the outside?

Yeah, the outside of the beak.
It's sterile and whatnot. Doctors use it instead of stitches sometimes.

 

[apryl29]

Ok, so beaks don't heal? My Loki seemed to have a bit of her beak that was flaked off (?) and she had been a bit timid w/ eating, but she was eating, then I noticed yesterday a larger piece was missing, but she was eating perfectly fine and lunging for the treats we tossed in (fruit) where she hadn't done that the day I noticed it. It's not bleeding and is the very end of the beak. I can get a current picture later today, but pretty much the black part at the very end is gone now. Is she ok as long as she's eating? Should I avoid things they have to peck at to eat, like a flock block? Is she missing something from her diet that may have caused this, or did she just peck at something that was too hard and break it?

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

In that area, there is a good chance that it will grow back. The front part is like a fingernail that needs trimmed regularly. The back part is like the finger, which doesn't grow back if cut off.

It seems suspicious that you have two girls with beak problems. I would take a good, hard look around the run to find what did that. Beaks are pretty hard and it would take a lot of force to do damage.

 

[apryl29]

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it. This is only one injured chicken for me. I just took a couple pics of it since it was hard to show exactly where the damage was, and for comparison later. I'll take a good look at all my other birds and see if anyone else is hurt. I think most everything is wood, plastic, and chicken wire, but I'll look to be sure. We were letting them free range, but after a coyote attack we'd stopped letting them out on their own & now only allow them out while supervised, but this happened during the lock in phase.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Ok, so beaks don't heal? My Loki seemed to have a bit of her beak that was flaked off (?) and she had been a bit timid w/ eating, but she was eating, then I noticed yesterday a larger piece was missing, but she was eating perfectly fine and lunging for the treats we tossed in (fruit) where she hadn't done that the day I noticed it. It's not bleeding and is the very end of the beak. I can get a current picture later today, but pretty much the black part at the very end is gone now. Is she ok as long as she's eating? Should I avoid things they have to peck at to eat, like a flock block? Is she missing something from her diet that may have caused this, or did she just peck at something that was too hard and break it?

She should be just fine. My girl had a much worse broken beak, and I'm pretty sure she got it by trying to out run a young eager rooster. Their beaks grow, jut like fingernails, and all the pecking wears it down over time. Sometimes they bump it and busts though. So long as she is eating and acting normally, she will heal.