Buckbeak - the crossbeak chicken *PICS*

[crzychickenlady]

Aww, he's cute!
I have one too. I got him from a feed store, and one other EE. I checked them over closely, I bet I was there for 30 minutes trying to choose, he had no sign of it at all until he was about 2 to 3 months old, and it has slowly progressed into what it is now.

I was just doing some research on it, and this link popped up, I don't visit this board often, but I should!

Here's my Murphy, he got that name because of the cross beak (Murphy's Law).

 

[dragonmoo]

I'm glad for this forum because having come across this issue while looking for something else, I knew that crossbeak was not necessarily a death sentence. I just took in a cross beak pullet. She looks full grown but hasn't started laying yet. The folks who hatched her said that she hasn't had problems eating, and she seems to be a healthy weight. Watching her around the yard & at the feeder, she doesn't seem to have any problems.

Her top beak is off center, and her bottom beak gets overgrown. We've only had her a few days, but she needs a trim.

Her name is "Hatchet-face" (after the character from the movie Cry-Baby), and she fits in with us and the rest of our "misfits"...if it weren't for this forum, I may have been afraid to take her in, now she has a loving family.

 

[boxermom]

I've got an EE that has a cross beak. Her name is Crook. We were going to process her when we did the cockerels, but DH didn't have the heart to lock her up with them all night. She always has a dirty neck, but she seems to be doing fine. I see her in the turkey crumbles more than the layer pellets. I try to give her special treats, but she is too skittish. I tried filing her beak when she was little, but it didn't work too well. Now, her bottom beak is very long, but I don't know if it's a detriment to her or not. What should it look like if I filed it?

 

[Amethyste]

We had a little EE crossbeak. She had a very slight offset to the beak at 1 day old and it just progressively got worse. At 6 weeks it was VERY very prominent and she jsut looked sick all the time. The vet we took ehr toom said that he thought she had some congenital things going on as well, and it was probably best to put her down.

So we took her home and let her spend a day or so with her sisters, and then I did the deed myself, since she was obviously having real issues. And with the cold and damp PNW winters we get, she really would not have done well

She was already looking really bad as it was, even with some tlc and hand feeding etc.

It was really strange tho.... it was looking very slight until she was about 5-6 weeks old then boom it really took off and she just looked horrible all of a sudden. I don't know how to describe it...I have seen other scissor beaked birdies that actually looked really well... this little one just looked really really ill out of nowhere. The vet said she didnt seem to have any transmittable disease...he was sure it was just how this poor little one was put together