Funny beak

[WildBillHicks]

I got this white leghorn in March. The thing is her beak looks different from the other leghorns I have. I attributed it to her being young. I guess she was 4 months old when I got her but now that she has aged a bit she still has that funny face/beak. What do you think?

Thanks

March



Today

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

It looks like her beak was trimmed, or she broke it. She looks very healthy though!

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

Looks like someone tried to debeak her and did both top and bottom instead of just the top.

 

[WildBillHicks]

why in the world would they do that? i got her from a local feed store. never had anything like this from them before. it sounds cruel.

 

[AmyLM]

yeah she does look debeaked.... they do it on the top part to stop hens from pecking at each other in factory type laying conditions.

But they don't usually do both top and bottom. Makes me wonder if she has a defect... genetic or something..

 

[Habibs Hens]

i call debeaked as leghorn the beaks are pretty long as my bird is

 

[WildBillHicks]

I was thinking maybe they did it to give her a distinct look.

 

[AmyLM]

lets hope that debbeaking NEVER becomes a fashion statement. Its bad enough when its done due to cram as many poor birds into a cage as possible without having them peck each other to death... Ive seen debeaked birds that were terribly mangled by it. This one... yeah looks debeaked. Was she from a hatchery or an individual?

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

De-beaking prevents feather picking. And yes, de-beaking is for laying hens in huge factories. In battery cages there are 3-4 crammed in (usually) and they have to be de-beaked so no one pecks each other.

 

[WildBillHicks]

I got her from a feed store in NC. She was about 3-4 months old at the time, not sure exactly (see first pic). She was in a pen with about 20 other pullets. I have bought about 15 chickens from this feed store. None have had this beak issue so I am pretty sure they didn't do it themselves. I was actually in there Friday and talked to the owner about finding some wood ash. Anyway, I asked him where he got his birds from. He said a couple of places locally and also from Mt. Healthy Hatchery in Cincinnati, Oh so who knows.

I picked her up for the first time to today to clean out her nose. She did not like me holding her. I was really surprised at how much she struggled and how she never really settled down. You know how eventually a bird will settle down if you hold them close to you, she acted like she was in a panic the whole time. I did clean her nose up though but it made me think she didn't like to be touched because perhaps she remembers being debeaked. Just a guess, I have no idea if that's why she struggled so much. Funny, because she walks around me in the run all the time as if she trusts me but man when I picked her up it was no pretty.