One of my 11 week old chickens has a little bit of a beak problem. The beak is "split" at the end, so instead of coming to a point, it forks off into 2 ends. I don't know if this is a problem, or what do do about it. Please help! P.S. she had a flat-ended beak as a chick... did that somehow lead to this problem? Pictures of the beak: When she was a chick: She looks pretty healthy, so it can't be causing her too many problems, right?:
I really don't know if you should leave it be or try to repair it I would worry that it could split further. I did find this - it's interesting for sure, the OP said after a month it had grown out and they trimmed the excess - something you may want to look at https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-with-a-split-beak-solution.712638/ There are various ways to "repair" a beak that is broken, but a split would be difficult - here's one method of repair http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/01/repairing-chickens-broken-beak.html If you do decide to try some type of repair/treatment, please let us know what you did and how it works, it would be helpful to others.
Thanks! If I do decide to trim the beak, does anyone know how to do it? Should I trim both the top and the bottom, to keep them even, or just the split top? What should I use to trim it? How much should I trim? Is the split too long to be able to trim in one go? Sorry for all the questions! I just want to make sure I don't hurt her if I trim it.