clipping wings & roosting

[joanna]

Ok, we've never clipped wings before but I'm thinking I want to on the next batch to keep them from flying over the fence. My question is if I clip them to prevent fly aways, can they still get to their roost? We are re-building the entire coop and changing, so I could put the roost wherever I want, but I don't know how high they can go with clipped wing feathers or if they just kind of fly in a circle LOL

any ideas?
thanks, J

 

[heathersboers]

They can fly about 2 feet up- we had to clip one wing on our leghorns to keep them off the house..

 

[Judy]

Why not include a ladder or some way they can hop up and down if they want? Sometimes chickens injure legs or hips getting off and on high roosts, anyway.

 

[donnavee]

All of our hens are heavier breeds and we never had any problems with them flying over the fence. Then we got 2 little devlish Golden Campines. We have a very large run, but it didn't matter - they flew out - even after raising the fence to 8 ft. There were even a few evenings when they flew out before bed time and spent the night outside - I was a nervous wreck, but they always showed up the next morning. Anyway, we finally clipped there wings last week and the escapes have ceased. Our roosts are around 30" high and they have no problems hopping onto them.

 

[joanna]

thanks for the input! it's very helpful