Sweet Lil' Ms. Cross Beak

  One of the main reasons for really researching about fermented chicken feed was because we have a cross beak or scissor beak chicken. She is one of our Americana chicks and she is only about 4 months old and the cross beak is really causing some problems. She is noticeably smaller than the other girls and it seems like its just by chance that she ever actually eats anything while foraging. The dry food seemed to be the same way, she had to work really hard and I would say she only eat about 50% of what she tried for... if even that. I knew she could eat pieces of strawberry like a champ, so I made her scrambled eggs and added some water to a bit of feed and brought her into the extension to eat by herself to see how she did, and she did very well. This is what started the soaked/fermented feed experiment. I actually started that night at making the porridge after I did some research. So, she is my number one fan of the soaked feed. We have one other cross beak friend, Mr. Roo, but he is not nearly as bad as Lil' Ms.
   Glenn and I have both read a ton about cross beak and all sorts of suggestions from trimming the beak to nutritional deficiencies. We will do what we can and what we think is best for her and her quality of life. For now its soaked/fermented feed. A lesson learned for us is who and who not to purchase a flock of chickens from, next time we will go to a big well know hatchery.