flightiness of ameracaunas.

i just got a stunning blue amercauna pullet, its wings are already clipped and i was told it was still flying, so we clipped both wings and it is still flying! i don't want to cut into a blood feather. what should i do?

A lighter bodied bird can usually fly fairly well. Cutting the feathers on one wing is better than two as it make them off balance trying to fly. If you have clipped wings and she's still able to fly, your alternatives are to put her where she can't get out, such as a building or enclosure with a wire top. Either that, or let her enjoy herself. I would not recommend clipping her wing feathers closer.

This is a photo of a parrot wing with a blood feather (taken from the Hagen Avicultural Institute website), but the difference between the shaft of a mature feather and a blood feather is the same in chickens.

The first feather on the bottom is a mature feather. The blood has receded completely and it can be cut without causing any pain or bleeding. The second feather, the one right above the first, is what a blood feather looks like. It can be cut at the point where the shaft starts to look like the mature feather shaft below it, but if you cut into the thicker opaque portion closer to the body it will cause bleeding and it will need to be plucked out entirely to get the bleeding stopped.

Personally, I am not a fan of the way most people clip chicken wings. Wing clipping works to keep birds from flying by removing the feathers which create lift and thrust, not by causing the bird to be unbalanced because you've only clipped one side. In fact, only clipping one side does cause the bird to be off balance and can actually cause the bird more harm, IMO (and the opinion of avian vets) because the bird can still get lift but then has no control which can cause them to careen and crash into objects. I prefer to clip both wings, and I prefer to do it one feather at a time. Yes, it does generally require that you have another person to help you clip wings, but it doesn't really take any longer to do than a traditional hack job where you just spread the wing and cut across all the primaries with a pair of scissors. This spring, my husband and I clipped the wings on 16 chicks in about 20 minutes, and that included the time it took to chase them across the yard and catch them too.

Instead, what I do is have someone else hold the bird. Then I spread the wing and, holding it firmly at the joint so that if they flap they don't cause any damage, clip each primary feather that I want to clip at the base of the feather shaft. If there is a blood feather where more than just the tip of the feather has matured and the blood is receding, then I clip that feather just past where the blood in the shaft stops. Using this method, it is pretty much impossible to accidentally cut a blood feather. It also looks nicer and leaves fewer sharp feather shafts to poke the bird than just making one cut across all the feathers you wish to cut. I prefer to use scissor style dog nail trimmers because they have a groove in them that makes it easier to isolate and cut a single feather shaft, but you could use any pair of strong sharp scissors. For young birds (I find I have to clip mine at no later than 6 weeks because otherwise they go over the fence into the neighbor's yard) I usually take as many of the primary flight feathers as I can (about 8 in most cases) because they are lighter and will require more feathers to be trimmed than an older, heavier chicken. The secondary flight feathers are mostly used for control, they are not used much for lift, so there is rarely any need or benefit to clipping the secondary flights. Using this method, the major coverts should completely cover the cut shafts of the clipped feathers.

Finally had to do a wing trim when we had a third person around who could work a camera! So, hopefully these photos will help explain the method I use to do wing trims. This is one of my Ameraucana pullets that we trimmed wings on at 6 weeks. Today, at about 14 weeks, my husband walked out to find her sitting on the fence, so we felt we had to trim more feathers. All of the other chicks we clipped at 6 weeks stay on the ground as far as we can tell so we haven't felt the need to trim any more feathers from them, but this pullet is the smallest and lightest so it makes sense that she could get more lift than they could. She's also the flightiest by far, although I have to wonder how much of that is the poor little thing being stuck dealing with 12 cockerels and 6 adult hens that all seem to pick at her if she wanders too close.


This is the underside of the wing. The three feathers between the fingers in the photo are blood feathers. The first one on the left is still pretty much completely encased, the next two the blood has started to recede down the shaft and you can see where the blood stops and the vein inside the shaft begins.


Again, the underside of the wing. Here you can see how I am holding the wing firmly at the joint so that if she flaps she can't cause any damage to herself. You can also see me sliding the nail clippers down the shaft to the base to make the cut.


Making the cut on a mature feather shaft. You can see how I am holding the major coverts aside with my finger tips so that I can see the base of the feather shaft that I am cutting. Also note the two blood feathers to the right of the feather I am cutting (these have already been cut in this picture but I thought it would make more sense to show cutting a mature feather first before addressing how to trim blood feathers). Sorry for the awkward angle on the photo, but it really was the best one for showing how and where to cut a mature feather shaft.


Making the cut on a blood feather. Note where the sheath ends and the feather is starting to emerge. The nail clippers are just above that point. Once the feather emerges from the sheath, the blood supply has receded past that point and it is safe to cut. The feather I am cutting in this picture is the middle blood feather in the first photo.


Finally, how the trimmed wing looks from the top side of the wing. Done properly, you shouldn't be able to see the cut ends of the shafts. At least not right after finishing the trim (if there are a lot of blood feathers, you will be able to see the feather shafts as the feathers continue to grow out but that should take several days to several weeks to occur). On this bird, I trimmed 12 feathers on each side. She's big enough that 10 probably would have done the job, but since she's getting lift when her hatchmates and chicks hatched a week and a half earlier (who we also trimmed at 6 weeks) are still grounded I wanted to trim a few extra just to make sure.

AnaWGSD,

Great documentation. Two of my four babies are Ameracauna's and we bought day old chicks this time instead of fertile eggs to let a broody girl hatch and raise. Pretty sure I will not do this again. These two are my fourth Ameracauna's and they are so naughty. I think they both need spankin's. They are the most flighty birds I've had to date. They are almost 7 weeks old and they are still inside my house (contained) and still a mess. After reading your posts, I feel comfortable clipping them as young as they are and puting them out with the others, separated. They need out and I want my house back. Plus, it's in the mid to high 90's here, now.