this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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Backyard Chickens (and Other Birds)

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[Were you a mod of backyard chickens on Reddit? Message me if you're interested in modding here.]

This is a community for people who keep chickens in their back yard. This includes pets, layers, and meaties at levels that are sub-industrial. Family farms and homesteads are included.

EDIT

The Fediverse is small. There probably aren't enough people here to make up a community for every type of bird that someone might keep so for now, everyone is welcome. Bring us your ducks and geese, turkeys and quail, Guineas and Peacocks, emus and parrots. The community will be focused on chickens but until there are enough of each bird community for their own community they will find care and comfort here.

/EDIT

There may be discussions of animal processing. This is part of chicken keeping. If you don't like it leave and block the community.

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Beak Injury Question (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by clif@lemmy.world to c/backyardchickens@lemmy.ca
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You ever have a hen who has a beak that seems to delaminate and soften? This is a first for me.

She's in good spirits, doesn't seem to be in pain, and forages a lot. But, she can't seem to grab much food in her beak - especially no grass.

She can get some layer crumbles and mealworms but not as much or as easily as in the past. I've been weighing her the past four days and she's hasn't lost a noticeable amount of weight. But, yesterday I also started supplementing her with moistened layer crumbles (offered separately from the others) and she devours it. It seems to only be the upper beak, the tip of which appears to have broken off yesterday afternoon.

Today I got a vitamin mix (couldn't hurt?) named "Nutri-Drench" and added that on top of the moistened crumbles.

Just curious since I've never seen this before.

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[–] MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm sorry to hear about your hen.

We've never had this particular problem but we have had chickens with broken and deformed beaks. We try to maintain a fairly low stress flock with plenty of room, food, and clean water and they seem to do just fine. The soft/delaminating thing may just be a fresh injury. If the break is just in the hard part of the beak I would just continue to do what you're doing. If there is any exposed tissue I would apply antibiotic ointment several times a day. If it becomes infected you need to seek a poultry veterinarian, if you can find one. If not and if it continues to deteriorate is may be necessary to give the bird mercy.

Good luck and please update us.

[–] clif@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Yes - it's just the hard part of the beak and not even 100% of it. The... root? where it connects to soft tissue appears to be fine. My understanding is that beaks can regrow, more or less like human fingernails, so long as the soft tissue it grows from isn't damaged.

We'll just keep doing what we're doing and giving her extra attention, then see how it turns out.

Thanks!

[–] clif@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I should clarify that the rest of the small flock (9) appear to be fine and do not have any problems. They also don't seem to pick on her for it from what I've seen.

[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like you said yourself, beaks regrow, they're like nails.

Vitamins probably couldn't hurt, but for this to be a nutritional deficiency you should either see the same issue in more birds, or have a good explanation for why you don't.

To me it seems much more likely that the chicken pecked at a rock and chipped the beak.

Paying close attention to the bird could never hurt, making sure it gets feed and water etc. But it shouldn't be a problem, I've seen something a bit worse before and the chicken was fine.

[–] clif@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks bud!

I'm 96% positive that the end of the beak wasn't chipped/broken when I started noticing the layer separation, but I could always be mistaken. I just weighed her again (probably going to post that as a new thread because it tickles me) and she's gained a bit of weight since I started checking weight so... I'm sure she's fine.