Diary of a Crossbeak: Support for Special Needs Chickens and their Keepers

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

I hope these hens are not being use for production of replacement birds.

 

[freedomrings]

Thank you very much..I will start trimming today.

 

[freedomrings]

Not mine. I dont have any roos...except Pocket who of course has to live in the country now.

 

[NewToFarming]

Not all crossbeaks are caused by genetics. There are both genetic mutations as well as enviromental factors that can cause crossbeaks in chickens.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Not all crossbeaks are caused by genetics. There are both genetic mutations as well as enviromental factors that can cause crossbeaks in chickens.

You are correct, and since one can not determine if it is a genetic or environmental impact the birds with this condition should not be bred to produce more chicks with the possibility of this malformation.

 

[Shianne]

I haven't checked her weight yet, but all the chickens are just loving the mash food! and I think she is liking it better. We also just let the little ones out with the big chickens and Crooky was out foraging with them all.

 

[NewToFarming]

You are correct, and since one can not determine if it is a genetic or environmental impact the birds with this condition should not be bred to produce more chicks with the possibility of this malformation.

I do agree but I did find some useful information here. http://www.polishbreedersclub.com/crookedbeaks.htm

 

[NewToFarming]

I haven't checked her weight yet, but all the chickens are just loving the mash food! and I think she is liking it better. We also just let the little ones out with the big chickens and Crooky was out foraging with them all.

Crooky is so pretty! I am glad she likes it and all the others as well. My entire flock just loves the mash. It is a chore to mix such a huge bowl twice a day but they all can benefit from the extra nutrition so I give it to all of them. I think you will find she will do well. She doesn't have to use so much energy to just get enough to eat!

 

[NativeBeauty]

Your "Dottie" looks like my Speckles....my cross beaked hen. She is an eleven month old EE and our pet chicken who spunkily follows us to and fro in the yard and the coop.Our kids have been spoken to many times that Speckles is special needs and may never lay eggs (she did and continues to do so occasionally

) and may never forage as the others do (she tries) and may not live a slong as the other hens....we are only to help her have as long and happy chicken life as we can. We know when she begins to suffer, we will all agree to ease her misery, although I know there won't be a dry eye in the house when that day comes

As a nurse, I am skilled in gastric tubing human patients, but never thought to try with my chicken before. Thanks for the wonderful idea!!

A few things to share that I have learned with our specially challenged hen:

• She hated her trip to the vet, but the dremel helped shape her beak for maximum scissor grip on her food (as she is unable to effectively keep the edges worn correctly).
• I have read that the cross beak is a deformity caused by incorrect positioning in the shell. The chick does not tuck their head under the wing correctly during development, causing incorrect alignment in the jaw...hence a cross beak. That said, however, I have noticed a high ratio of EE and silkie chicks being mentioned?!?

I plan to try unmedicated turkey poult crumbles (high protein) chick grit and crushed oyster shell for a puree with water and olive oil....wish me luck. I'd love to get a head start on old man winter for our friend.

P.S. Anyone notice their cross beak chooks lap at the water with their tongues...make sure there is a wide margin lip at the waterer as these chickens also experience difficulties getting their beaks in correctly to drink as they should, especially if the beak isn't dremeled into a shorter shape.

Hi, I'm new here. I've been reading here for the last few days and when I found this thread I knew that I had to get an account.
I'm not usually one to post things, but I just had to say thank you for starting this thread. I had a cross beak EE, Dottie, a couple of years back. When she was brought home, her beak was almost normal. As she grew up it became progressively worse. When I went to the local feed store, their “Chicken Lady” told me that all I had to do was feed her out of a deep dish bowl. I stared doing that, but the other girls would push her off the bowl. So I started feeding her by sitting on the walk way and holding a blue dixie cup full of food instead. That worked well for her. I don't think she ever gave an egg and she was always under weight, but she had the best personality of all the girls. The second winter that I had her she died. I know now that she was probably malnourished and I wish that I would have had some of the advice here to help her out. So again, thank you.



So now for a funny story about why the color of the dixie cup was important in the above story. Dottie knew what color her cup was. You could walk around with any color of cup in the backyard, except blue. I'm not sure how much color chickens see, but she knew her cup one way or another.
One of the blue cups had escaped and was lying in the middle of the yard. I was standing in the kitchen watching the girls out the window when the guys who mow my lawn showed up. It was like slow motion, he bent down to pick up the cup and Dottie saw it. She came as fast as her little legs could carry her from across the yard and started doing “that” chicken jump at him. You know the one. The one that's all wings and chattering. Anyway the poor guy, it scared the heck out of him and he was yelling, “Oh my God! Oh my God!” at the top of his lungs . The other guys that were working with him were laughing and I was running out of the back door yelling “Drop the cup! Drop the cup!”. When he stopped yelling to take a breath and heard me yelling, he threw the cup a few feet away and she she followed it to where it landed. When she figured out that it was empty she came over to me for her for her treats. I always keep a bowl of scratch by the back door and had grabbed it on the run out. I apologized to the guy, but I don't think that he believed me because I was laughing so hard. It was funny as all get out. This story does not do it justice.
Sorry, that was kind of long winded, but I couldn't resist sharing that story about my cross beak. By no means was she stupid and because of all the hand feeding she was vary tame. My mother used to tease me that she was my “lap chicken”. So again, thank you for posting this thread to help promote awareness that you don't always have to euthanize a cross break chicken.

 

[SusanRenee]

So glad I was pointed to this thread again... I wanted to share Hinky's solution to deep dish eating!



She just get's right in! Her crossbeak is pretty severe, I'm not positive she get's enough, the other day she had an eye shut and was kind of listless on me. She won't hand feed, she's about 3 months old and I just got her a couple weeks ago, I'm a sucker for a project.... I seperated her in a crate for a while with a mash of chick feed, yogurt, honey and peanut butter and have done that the last two days. She ate a bunch of the mash today but when I opened the crate ran right out and hopped in the feeder. Not sure what we're gonna do when she get's too big to get in!!!