new to BYC and am having problems with my first hens

[MyOrpingtons]

Hello, I am new to this forum and to owning chickens. I bought three buff orpington chick's about four months ago. They have all been doing well till just recently. One of them now has a crooked beak. I tried to look it up online, but everything I found was on crossed beak. From what I understand that is supposed to show up very early in development, but my hens problem only started about a week ago, and it has been getting progressively worse. I don't think it broken because she let's me touch it without causing any sort of fuss. When you force it back into alignment you could see that the bottom part of the beak is significantly longer than the top. I've heard that you may sometimes need to trim a chickens beak, but I don't know if that's what this is or how to do it. Any help would be appreciated thank you.

 

[drumstick diva]

Yes, that is cross beak. Please do NOT try to force into correct position, you are likely to break it off. If she is able to eat and drink -there is no reason to tamper with it. Sometimes if you pile the food up it is easier for them to grab some. If you put "cross beaks," in the search box, articles will pop up.

 

[MyOrpingtons]

Thank you. I try to be gentle with her. She doesn't seem to have a problem eating. She has always been bigger that the other two, but I suppose it might take longer for problems to show up if she isn't eating properly. Is there anything in particular that I should be watching for?

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC - you have some great advice already from DDiva, so I'll just say hello!

All the best
CT

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi

Glad you could join us here! Sorry to hear your having no problems with her Please do check out this link ~ https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=Cross+beak#
Lots of very informative threads there with good advice. Soaked food can really help birds with beak issues. A little messy yes but beneficial to the bird.

Wishing you the very best of luck with her in the future

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!