Every morning when I let the girls out of the coop for the day they get a quick visual check-up. This morning I noticed that one of the hens had broken a small piece of her top beak off. I watched her closely today and she is eating, drinking and able to keep her place in the pecking order without any problems. A good thing since she is a good layer.

I'm just wondering how she lost part of her beak. Any ideas?

ewo, she probably got it caught in a small crevice. Is her beak unusually long? Not ever a problem with wild hawks, but ones fed soft food tend to get a little "beaky". and need to have the beak "coped" If she is not in distress, I wouldnt worry.

Thanks wireless. Her beak was normal and I feed pellets as the main diet with scratch, kitchen scraps and any insects they find. She had no blood on her beak and seems to be fine. I will keep an eye on her, and at 2 yrs old, if she has any problems she will quickly and humanely be dispatched to the soup pot.

Note. Pecking order has nothing to do with the beak, all to do with the attitude. And yes, I concur on the soup pot, but she should be good for another year, anyway...........wireless

Actually, her top beak would have to be almost completely gone for it to impact her production or health
As a matter of fact, a method of dealing with severe pecking problems in a flock, is to cut the top- beak
back enough that they can't do each other any harm.

Some times the whole flock has this done to them to halt the problem. It looks bad, but it is the same material that finger nails are made of, and unless it is so damaged that it gets into the "quick", there is no harm.

This is esp. a problem in flocks that are overcrowded, or under other stress.

IIRC Murray McMurray hatchery sells these cutters, and they resemble the ones used to cut dogs nails.