Cracked Beaks

[SGershwin]

I moved my buff orpingtons and white leghorns outside to their new run today and spent an hour watching them adjust and enjoy their new space. This afternoon, I was spending time with them in the run, handing them and looking them over. Three now have cracks in their beaks. One has a small section of beak missing between her nostrils, one has a crack running in front of her nostrils with two small sores next to the lower section of her beak. The third has two areas where there are cracks, one is at the tip of her beak and then a small section missing near her nostrils.

I've put probiotics and vitamins in their water. They are on chick mash still and need to be for another week. I also took the vetRX out and swabbed each of the affected chicks beaks with it. Is there anything else I should do to help their beaks heal?

 

[itsmechrissy]

One of my hens had a crack in her beak last summer and it grew out ( kind of like a nail), the hen is fine now. Seems odd though that 3 of your hens have the issue at the same time but (of course) I've only had my 4 hens for about a year so I'm far from a chicken expert.

 

[SGershwin]

I know that in their excitement yesterday, they tried flying and bashed into their feeder as well as into the hardware cloth for their run. So, I believe I know how this happened. And once there is one excited chick, all the rest follow suit, so there was a bit of mayhem in their space. They seem to be very aware now of their surroundings.