First crooked beak chick

[MainerChick]

So i have my first crooked beaked chick. It's an Easter Egger, pale feathering, and currently about two weeks old. I have a few questions for those who have seen this before.

If the deformity is highly visible now, is it likely to continue to get even more crooked, and if so, how old would you try to get the bird to be before culling for freezer camp?

Is this an issue Ideal Hatchery should be told about, or that they should have known was in their breeding stock? I don't want to raise a stink if this is one of those random things that just happens in chickens. I also don't want to waste time before contacting them if this is a supplier problem.

Thanks!

 

[sourland]

The cross beak may become worse as the bird grows - in my experience it always has. Provide feed in a deep dish - moistening helps - and send to freezer camp once the size is adequate. Judging by the frequent posts about EE with cross beak it appears to occur among them more than other breeds/crosses. I am fairly certain the hatchery already knows that the problem exists.

 

[MainerChick]

Do you feel I should isolate the cross break bird? And how many weeks does it take for this breed to get big enough to bother with freezer camp vs just culling it?

 

[sourland]

If it were me, I would keep an eye on the bird and decide based upon on how well it does, and cull if that becomes necessary. Growth rate is moderate at best as they are raised primarily for production of 'pretty' eggs.

 

[MainerChick]

It's an annoying defect. I probably wouldn't have bothered with the EEs had I known it was somewhat common to them, but they're here. So we shall see how the rest do and go from there.

 

[Folly's place]

A full deep dish for both food and water, and watch, I agree. If she's doing okay, freezer camp when large enough. If she's not coping, cull sooner. It's a defect that turns up sometimes in many breeds, very sad. This spring one of my Chanteclers was affected, and he did fine to processing day. Mary

 

[yochickiemomma]

My mom ended up with a buff that had the same issue this last spring. She grew slower than the rest of the hens but they didn't pick on her at all. She was killed by a fox so we're not sure how big she would have gotten on her own.

 

[MainerChick]

So call me crazy but I'm still nursing this bird along. We actually made it a little prosthetic lower beak out of layered CVS glue-on finger nails, secured with super glue to the side of his 90 degree turned lower beak. So far it gets about four days of decent eating out of an application. I'm not sure it will be kept long term, but while we debate it's fate, this lets him eat semi normally.