Glen Hill Farm: Short & Sweet and A Torn Beak

The same husband who said "You should really start a blog" just said to me "Your blog takes up too much of your time." Love that! (He was trying to be helpful.) And of course, he's right, which makes it that much more annoying. Since every time I post a blog, you can pretty much guarantee that my family is getting pizza for dinner that night. (Feel free to send over nutritious vitamin-packed meals on those days.)

ANYWAY, today I'm going to try to make this short and sweet. Which is very hard for me because I'm a details girl. But let's see if I can do it.

(Alright, I can already feel myself wanting to give waaay too much background information, but I'm going to resist.) Here we go...

Did you know that chickens' beaks are very similar to our fingernails in that they continue to grow throughout their lives? It's true and I'm very relieved that is the case.

Back in August, (August 31st to be exact...Ooops, too much detail, must be quicker) we noticed that our white leghorn hen, Minerva Louise, had injured her beak. We don't know how it happened, but my best guess is that she may have tried to peck at something through the mesh wiring of the chicken run and caught her beak in it and it tore.

Minerva Louise BEFORE the beak incident.
Beautiful, healthy beak.

Minerva Louise the day of the injury.
See the tear at her upper beak?
And the discoloration?

The day after the injury.
The beak looked a little worse to me.
It seemed to have shrunk a bit. Yikes.

Ben thought Minerva Louise looked like a burrito
all wrapped up in her towel.

Doctor Ryan holding Minerva while I cleaned her beak.

I was hoping for the best, knowing that over time most injured beaks will grow out the part that got damaged and eventually the beaks will grow back to normal. Some chicken experts recommended using a little super glue to reattach a torn beak, and I considered it, but then decided against it. Since I had seen her successfully eating and drinking with this injury, I thought I'd just let nature takes its course. I was too worried that the super glue fumes would bother her, and that too many things could go wrong using super glue on a live animal, right? So, we cleaned up Minerva Louise's beak as best we could, disinfected it with Vetericyn spray and kept our fingers crossed that she would be okay. I was worried about her because I had read that if the tear was really high up (which Minerva Louise's seemed to be) there was a chance that it could be permanently damaged.

Well, a little over a month later, I'm happy to report that Minerva Louise's beak has been growing out nicely. While I'm guessing it'll take another month or two to completely heal, her beak looks much better.

Minerva Louise's beak today.

An interesting side note... We noticed that Minerva Louise's egg yolks were a little less orange than the other hens' yolks and wondered if this might be due to her beak injury stopping her from eating as well as the other hens. Good news is that even her yolks have been a little darker recently, so I think she's doing just fine these days. Phew! And, of course, just as Minerva Louise's injury is almost better, I noticed that Reese's beak is missing its very tip. Oy vey. But luckily, it's a much smaller break and should heal quickly.

Also, if you're interested in how Minerva Louise got her name? There is a children's book series about an adorable little white hen named Minerva Louise by author Janet Morgan Stoeke. I highly recommend these picture books. So cute and funny!