What's wrong with my beak?

[cassiadawn]

Took a closer look at my chicks today, and noticed one of the gold laced wyandottes has something funky going on with its beak. I can't tell if the top is too long, or the bottom is too short. Any thoughts?

The chick is about 3 weeks old. He/she's the same size as the other 7 chicks from this batch, so it seems to be managing to eat and drink just fine, at least so far...

 

[Imp]

Seems like it happens occasionally. The beak can be trimmed. I'll attach a link that has some info. Good luck

Imp

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=132673

 

[cassiadawn]

Thanks for the info, but the more I look, I think something else is going on here. If i tried to trim its top beak even with the bottom, it'd have no top beak left! I think the top beak is curving downwards... and possibly the bottom beak is shorter than it should be?
Here's a side-by-side with a photo of my other GLW chick, same hatch, to compare it to (sorry it's a bit blurry - only the heat lamps are on in the shop now, and my camera had a hard time focusing!)

 

[Imp]

You're right it is a marked difference. The "nose" even looks different. I don't know enough about this kind of stuff to help. There have been lots of posts about chickens with deformed beaks that did just fine, as long as they were able to eat. Good luck.

Imp

 

[fancbrd4me02]

I'm not sure that there is anything to be done about that, just some sort of defect. I have a chick that I noticed has a beak that grows turned towards the side. It's not a bird i plan to breed, and she can eat and drink, so I don't worry too much about it. I just keep an eye on her to make sure she can funtion normally.

 

[KellyHM]

The bottom beak is definitely too short. The top beak is a little long, just from not rubbing the bottom beack like it normally would. As long as she's happy and otherwise healthy I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[dieselgrl48]

Its a tad long long but at least not a scisscor beak.I had a silkie once with that.I A longer beak can be trimmed off if it gets any worse.I have used the Pedi paws groomer for dog's on some spur's on roos.You might have to have a little help if you go that route but much better than the heat de-beaking.Much safer and even though you might stress the bird in the grinding process it much better than the heat method.I got some major spur's from my serama and duckwing roo and a cochin.My dog doesnt mind it it att for his nails.I never have beak problems though but it should work just as well for beaks.It doesnt look that bad to me personaly right now though.

 

[Lensters]

The shape of it head is all wrong. Definitely don't use it for breeding and if you know who it's parents are you might consider removing them from the gene pool. You will probably need to trim it's beak as it isn't wearing correctly. Use little scissors or a sharp knife and trim it so that it top is flat with the bottom, even if they don't meet up. Don't worry too much about hurting it, the beak is like your fingernails and you aren't going to be getting anywhere close to the quick.

Edited for grammar error and a typo...

 

[Happydaze]

I'd say that it has a slight deformity of the "bridge" part of it's "nose" If you compare where it's eyes and nostrils are in comparison to the other one, you can see that it's face is slightly mishapen.

 

[Opa]

I know it's not the advice you'd like to hear but I would recommend culling.