Crossbeak the Rooster
Most of the time, Cross beak can be identified in a chick in its first week of life. However, in the case of my cross beak, I didn't notice anything different about the chick until it was around 3-4 weeks old. Cross beak also tends to worsen over the chicken's life.
Even though this condition causes a bit more difficulty in a chicken's, the severity between cases is great and it does not always mean a death sentence. There is no cure for crossbeak and often many breeders decide to cull a chick that has it from their flock.
I am not down for purposeless killing, so I told myself "Once this thing has troubles feeding itself then that time will come when I may have to cull it from my flock. I cannot know how this will turn out until then. I will at least let it live to be a proper sized meal for my family."
At the end of February is when I got my first batch of chickens. I got myself 4 Easter Eggers and 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes. One of the Silver Laced Wyandottes (SLW) was a little friendly, and somewhat aggressive (not in a real bad way, but would be the first to stand up for itself by pecking at my hands as I was reaching into the brooder) - I should have known I had a rooster on my hands...
As every person who raises a chick does, you end up wondering "Do I have a male or female on my hands?", and then you start asking around for other people's opinions. Some said male, because of the way it would look at me, and some said absolutely female due to the way the feathers on its wing were aligned. I didn't mind either way. I was happy to have this weird little chick who wasn't afraid of me and would let me hold it.
When this chick was about three or four weeks old, I started noticing its top beak wasn't really centered. I thought it to be odd and kind of let it roll with it. I didn't really know what would come of it at the very time, but decided not to worry since it was the heaviest and fastest growing chick of the bunch. Obviously, it wasn't hurting for anything.
The crossbeak deformity really started showing at 4 weeks old for sure. I was a bit disappointed but like I said, it wasn't hurting for anything and was the biggest of the bunch - no need to cull, in my opinion. At this point it was still friendly enough, and I finally was having the hint of having a little rooster on my hands. This is no problem for me as I live in the middle of no where.
He and his "hatch-mate" another SLW.
At 4.5 weeks old they had feathered out enough and I deemed them worthy to be put outside in the coop without an additional heat source. They all flourished. You can see that was still plump and happy in the above photo! This was about the time it was really solidifying for me that he was a roo, haha, I started noticing that his legs were much thicker than the other chick's, and that is a common sign of a roo.
On this day, he was having quite the attitude so I decided to pick him up and flaunt him around his ladies. Bahaha. He wasn't happy about it.
You can see that the cross beak has gotten worse over the weeks, in the images above he was almost 8 weeks old. With a big attitude, I still determined hew as doing find on his own within the flock.
May 16th, about 12 weeks old.
I was able to capture on of Crossbeak's first crows. He only started crowing the day prior to this video, which was taken on June 22! You gotta watch because 1) he looks ridiculous, and 2) he also sounds ridiculous! You will probably laugh!
May 29th and June 22nd
As you can see, he is a big healthy guy. I have another rooster and Crossbeak is still bigger than the other! So far, he is a pretty good rooster. I did have to give him the boot the other day for being a little too aggressive come feeding time - and you're - I guess - not supposed to "allow" them to mate in front of you... But other than that, we've had no real big negative run ins with this one. I am so glad that he is still big and healthy. Even if he is rude at feeding time because of his crossbeak.
Note - I have only "named" a couple of my chickens, they're not real names, but, I have two roosters, this one is Crossbeak, and the other is "the other white rooster" hahaha.
Stay tuned to meet the rest of my chickens! This is only one of my 21 chickens!
Cross Beak Info Sources:
Photos by me using my iPhone 6s, unless stated otherwise!
Check out my most recent Steemit Posts.
- A Free Resource No Homesteader Should Be Without
- Brewer's Blackbirds aka Crap Nuggets [Nature on the Farmstead #4]
- Meet the Chickens!
- Chicken Coop a la Mode
- A Sigh of Relief - Honey Bees [Nature on the Farmstead #5]
- My Hell's Kitchen - As Told By Husband (Funny!)
Blog Series
- Nature on the Farmstead - These posts will be educational and informative about the nature that happens on my farmstead. Look forward to posts about wild animals, birds, wildflowers and plants, insects, and more!
- Just click here to see all my posts in one place!
Badges by @daddykirbs and @allforthegood!
I really liked this article, it got me thinking. One thing I wondered is the role that nutritional deficiencies might play. Weston A Price studied people around the world and found that people who had diverse, natural, traditional diets high in minerals, didn't need to have their wisdom teeth removed because their jaws were able to fully develop. In the West, we have access to an abundance of low quality, high calorie food that looks great but lacks deep nutrition, trace elements and essential minerals. As a result, our genetics are unable to fully express themselves. perhaps there are other contributing factors that could account for the beaks developing like that. Other than growing food in naturally mineral rich soils, people add glacial rock dusts (I also think fungi are helpful for making the minerals more bio-available to the plants) or AZOMITE, which can also be fed to livestock directly. Genetics is definitely a big factor, but how well they are able to express themselves due to environmental factors is also a consideration. Thanks for the post @farmstead Look forward to reading more from you!
Interesting thoughts. I can't say for sure whether that's a factor or not because many are already hatched with a cross beak, so maybe the food factor would have to be available to the parent? The sources I read stated that many times it is due to the Chick being positioned incorrectly inside the egg, not protecting its head (I guess they typically have it tucked beneath their wing).
Now, that's not to say that the fact I feed my Chickens what I feel to be high end Organic Soy-Free and Corn-Free feed (brand: Scratch and Peck) doesn't have to do with maybe the cross beak not showing up until it was 3-4 weeks old? Everything I read said it showed up before two weeks! And maybe it's not letting it progress as quickly. My chickens are also free range here on 20 acres.
But what I do doesn't say much for their previous lives and parents as they are hatchery chicks.
Thanks for stopping by and starting a conversation! And thanks for the resteem!
Pleasure! Yeah, there does seem to be a lot more to it than that but it sounds like your chickens have about as wonderful a life as could be hoped! I think the Hatchery factor could be the part that is hardest to do anything about. If they were bred and raised to not move around as freely and naturally as your chicks get to enjoy, then all kinds of natural traits and behaviors get lost in place of higher returns on meat or eggs in shorter times. If they don't get to move or see much light, who is going to notice the beak? I've also heard of people's experiences rescuing cage birds and struggling with hens that have no instinct for scratching. And thus need to learn from established hens.
I was getting worried when I saw you holding him...you know...getting too attached. I am happy to hear that your roo is healthy with the way his poor beak is. I don't think I am cut out to be on a farmstead because I can't imagine me eating something that I raised. Which reminds me of a terrible yet funny story about what happened to my sister-in-law, whens he was a young girl. I will have to post it sometime. As always, I learned something new today from you and I will be looking forward to learning more.
Oooh hey!! Still would love you over in our little group, if you're still up for it!
Hope you had a great 4th! :)
Haha I was holding him cause he was being a dick. Hahahah. So then you hold him, and call him a pretty boy, just to knock down his masculinity a couple notches. Hahahahaha.
These guys aren't necessarily MEANT for eating. But it might happen if they get too aggressive (the roos at least). But it's practice for when they also might get taken off by a predator. Haha.
I never thought I could eat something I raised. I still don't know for sure. We plan to get some Quail to be our first real meat birds.
Great article, resulting in far-away readers like myself getting attached to your chickens! LOL It's great to see cross-beak is still going strong. I would let him go on for as long as he can. I don't know if his condition will grow worse over time, but you'll notice that one he can't fend for himself, starts losing weight, and probably lose his social position in the coop, the cooking pot will be a relieving prospect. Until then, may he crow long and loud!
It seems like it does in fact get worse over time. It's even worse now than it was in the last photo taken here. Crazy, huh?
Yeah, I will let him go until he can't any more! :) He's an alright guy, even if a jerk. Haha.
Firstly, I name all my chickens. I have to know their names when the day comes to thank them for dinner! But Im not very creative, all my black ladies are Roberta for example.
Also, whats this about not 'allowing' them to mate in front of you? I've never heard that and now I'm wondering if I have some over-sexed chickens.
Great article, I love the time lapse of Crossbeak growing up, takes a lot of time but the result is a great article like this! I learned something new today thanks to @farmstead
I'm no expert or anything but from my research haha -- it helps establish yourself as the "head honcho". In the case of an aggressive rooster helps protect yourself. To me, they should see me as this and not a threat to attack. I have two roosters. Haha
I don't name mine cause I have a bad habit of getting attached to things. Since I free range I know the dangers of them being taken away by a predator is extremely high.