Thanks! I just pulled her from the roost to try filing a little, to see if I can get everything to line up. Spoke with the breeder, and she swears this is the first crossbeam she's heard of from her line. That means it might be an injury.
If it's an injury, does that mean it might be correctable?
Okay... silly question, but I just can't wrap my head around it. What is the main purpose of beak trimming? Should I be trying to get the tips to line up? When I look at my little Chuck, I can't quite figure out what I should be doing to help her.
I'm no expert and I'm sure you'll receive a more knowledgeable answer! In the meantime:
When did you begin to notice the issue? I tend to think
most crossbeaks are the result of genetics...I can't think of an injury that would cause that specific beak growth. However, I'm sure it's possible and I have heard it mentioned.
The way I imagine it, the crossbeak is a certain curved growth of the beak (skull defect) while an injury would (typically) be more of a misalignment from being damaged. I'm sure it can be hard to distinguish between the two in some cases.
As for the purpose of beak trimming, I'm not sure exactly to what extent it has helped. To me, it was just experimenting to see if anything would help her. My goal was to keep it from growing further downwards and curling. When she opens her beak, I don't want the upper tip to extend down in her way, so I trimmed this to possibly assist in eating food. She's getting bigger, it seems to me, and doing fairly well.
Polly's upper beak is useless for the most part. Her lower beak is not really misaligned, and she uses it to scoop food/water. However, due to the lack of upper beak function, pecking/picking is impossible, so trimming is just to get some of it out of the way.
Good luck with your chicken!
I just cut chuck's beak back a little too far and made her bleed. Thank goodness that (a) I didn't cut all the way, so it's not gushing and should close up and (b) I had styptic powder on hand, nearby, and opened. 
