Beak Questions!

Hello again... again...!

Sorry lots of questions recently but im new to all this!

Two things - one of the girls i got has got a small bit of the upper part of her beak missing, doesn’t look sore, is this normal/ a problem?

I got her with two others that have no such problems so I don’t think they have been clipped intentionally?

Unrelated but still beak related, one of them seems to have a habit of scrapping her beak back and forth on a bit of wood in the run?  Again is this normal behaviour of a sign of boredom?

Cheers

Lew

Mine wipe their beaks on my trouser leg if I don't step away fast enough! 

I noticed my Light Sussex this morning wiping her beak repeatedly on a brick.  She wasn't doing it to dislodge anything that I could see, and I did wonder if she was smoothing the edges, a bit like filing her nails.  She was doing it after everyone had eaten their breakfast and they were sitting in the garden to rest and preen.

Lewjam, I wonder if your girls might benefit from something a little more solid in their run, like a brick or paving stone (assuming they don't already have one).  Or you could give them each a little nail file. 

I remember seeing or reading something about hens do this to show where food is.

I know mine do this and  if the others see it, they run over to see what's going on.

Hens scrape their beaks to clean them as Joy says and also to file them.  Caged birds have a cuttlefish bone to do this and in fact there's no reason a chicken can't also use a cuttlefish bone thought usually a sandstone or similar abrasive stone will do.

Hens bob their heads up and down to show their chx where food is (they only do this with chicks not other hens).  Chx react rapidly to this gesture.   With chx you can simulate their action to encourage them to drink in an artificial brooder by tapping your finger hooked downways into the water (or chick crumbs for that  matter).  Hens don't do this with other hens though cockerels will with hens usually picking the food up and dropping it again.  Hens when they find food will try to monopolise it by taking it to a corner and sticking her head in to prevent other hens stealing it.
HF

Cheers for the help! From this and another topic I have added a couple of bricks to my pen for both beaks and to put my.water hoper off the ground so they stop putting dirt and grass in it!