What happened to one of my hens? She, a RI Red, was found sitting in the hen house floor, resting. On closer inspection, she had almost all of her upper beak GONE! Her lower beak was broken in a slant but still attached to her head. She can't eat or even drink. We chopped her head off to put her out of her misery. At first I though someone (who shouldn't even be in my yard) had slammed the henhouse door on her and broke the beak. Now I don't know. Could she have been pecking at something and gotten it wedged tight, then fell breaking it? Has anyone ever had this happen? She was only a chicken and I have many more but I don't want a repeat occurance!!

-- Eve in FL (owenall@lwol.com), May 12, 2001

Answers

Eve, too late now for advice but: I used to raise Gamecocks. When one got its bill broken in a fight, we were sometimes able to trim the other bill so that the upper and lower were the same length, even though shorter than normal, and they could eat OK I think you did the right thing. If a chicken or something is not "right",it's better to kill it Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), May 14, 2001.