Chick born with deformed beak, should I cull?

[suenrob]

I had one egg left to hatch out of 40. I thought it was a dud but held it up to my ear and tapped on it and it began to chirp. I put it back and waited, but still no pip. I decided to help and found out why it couldn't pip the egg. It is missing half of its upper beak!!!! I don't know if it will be able to eat or drink properly. Has anyone ever has this happen? If it makes it through the night, I will try to get a picture in the morning. I feel so bad for the poor little thing.

On a happier note: I had a great hatch!!! 38/40

Never mind, It didn't make it

At least I didn't have to make the decision.

 

[Pumpkinpup]

Oh, my! I would supose it would depend on how severe the deformity is. If you see that it is unable to feed itself after a couple of days I think I would cull it

I am sorry

Hope it makes it.

 

[can you hear me now?]

if it can't eat or if it can't eat adequately then I would suggest culling it. There is not sense letting the little thing suffer from a lack of nourishment.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I had a chicken that ended up with a severely deformed beak. Eventually she could not feed herself and I had to tube feed her. This is a very time consuming chore and one I had to do about every two hours. I could not go anywhere without the chicken. And then one day I was in a rush and put the tube down the wrong pipe and killed my little pet hen.
If your little chick cannot eat, cull it, unless you want to be it's feeding slave for the rest of it's life!

 

[bearfeet3]

If it's only missing half of it's upper beak, it should do fine...Have you heard of debeaking? In the egg industry it's pretty common for the beak to be trimmed off to prevent cannibalism due to overcrowding. It's disgusting in my opinion that people would intentionally do this but they seem to do fine. Heres a couple pictures.

http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken-debeak-01.jpg

http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken-debeak-04.jpg

Anyway if the animal has a will to live and isn't suffering, I wouldnt "cull" it.

 

[ChickieKeeta]

Sorry for your loss. Good to be spared from making the decision.

Wonderful hatch rate!!!!

 

[suenrob]

Thanks everyone