Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Lindyloo on December 29, 2010, 18:53
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Hi, first post on the forum so looking forward to receiving loads of useful advise as I'm new to hen keeping !
One of my birds, a POL cream legbar has a slightly extended bottom beak ( about 3mm longer than the upper one), she doesn't seem to be quite as good at pecking up food than the other in the house, should I be worried??
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Welcome Lindy loo. You really don't need to worry about your lady with an extended bottom beak. Unless you feel she really is not getting her fair share in which case you can trim a little bit off just as you would a toe nail then file the edge with a little bit of fine sand paper. You will find over time that just plain scratching around will wear it down to.
Hen keeping is such fun but brings it's anxieties to so just ask, there's lot's of helpful people here and we certainly do not scoff or jeer at questions however off the wall they might be.
OL
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hello and welcome. Some breeders (the same with battery farms) clip the hens beaks to stop them pecking each other.
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Joy,
Is it ok to clip the top of a hens beak? My cream legbar's top part is really long and crosses over the bottom part of her beak, She eats ok though
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here are some instructions although I have never had to do it. Be careful and clip just a small amount at a time you can always clip a bit more afterwards.
http://www.ehow.com/how_4513302_trim-chickens-beak.html
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Thank you :happy:
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We had a similar problem with one of our girls earlier in the year, after reading about how to trim it we decided to hang fire for a while, and sure enough she sorted it out herself
Good luck and welcome :happy:
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Hi Lindyloo, our hens we got from a breeder had their beak clipped and they've been fine :D
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Thank you all for your advice, I think we will leave the clipping and see how she gets on
:D
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If you do decide to trim the beaks you should do it in angles, not straight across as this can crack the beak.
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hello and welcome. Some breeders (the same with battery farms) clip the hens beaks to stop them pecking each other.
Yes some breeders trim the top mandible and it's usually done with a hot iron blade (like an electric soldering iron) which burns through the beak cauterising it and preventing splintering the beak and preventing bleeding of the quick.
Should you be worried Lindyloo? No I don't think you need to severely trim the beak. A small filing might be Ok and if the top has been trimmed it will grow back. Check it doesn't grow back with thin side extentions which distort the beck profile. These can be trimmed with a file if it grows back distorted in this way.
HF