Thought I'd give an update on my scissor-beaked EE chick. She'll be 4 weeks old on Monday. From what I can tell, the scissoring doesn't appear to have gotten any worse. She's still smaller than the other chicks hatched the same day but she seems to have caught up a little. I moved them to the coop last weekend. They're separated from the adult hens with a hardware cloth pen with a hardware cloth roof but they can see each other & I have not noted any aggressiveness from the adult hens. The chicks seem fascinated with the adult hens & I see them watching then mirroring the older hens' scratching & rooting behaviors. I was half afraid to move them...especially the scissor-beak.... because we've had horribly hot, humid weather ("feels like" temps no lower than 75F but as high as 113F) and I was afraid it would stress them too much. I kept a good eye on them for heat stress & provided them a shallow dish of water to use as a wading pool where they could splash around & cool off if needed. My fears about the heat were unfounded as they've all done very well & the scissor-beak actually seems to be THRIVING in the high heat. Despite her disability, she seems to be learning how to compensate. Where the other chicks peck lightly at their feed, I see her driving her beak deeper into the feed and kind of scooping it up. I make sure to keep the feed dish filled pretty deep so she can really get down into it for easier scooping. I noticed her feathers were a bit tatty & she wasn't preening herself before I put them out there & now I'm seeing her preening & her feathers are almost completely normal. I've also seen her using that offset lower beak as a kind of "ladle" to scoop up water. I don't know if the scissoring will shorten her lifespan or not but I'm going to give her every chance that I can for a long, full life. The only thing I'll do different for her is that she will be kept in a pen with other hens ONLY...no making whoopie with the rooster because I don't want to risk passing on the scissor-beak to other generations.
