At what age can I clip my chicks wings?

[Wissa38]

Hi,

I was all excited to mix my three chicks with my two adult chickens when I realized a problem; the chicks can fly.

My chicken area consists of a covered run and hen house that measures 10ft x 4ft. The hen house is in the covered run about two feet off the ground. Attached to this run is an outside area (20ft x 15ft) that is surrounded by a four foot wire fence. My adult chickens spend most of their day in this outside area where they have plenty of room to run around, take dust baths and hang out in the shade under bushes.

But this outside area isn't covered and has a 4 foot fence. My chicks can fly quite well and I've seen them go to the top of the hen house, which is about 6 feet. There is no way I can cover this area with a roof.

When can I clip the chicks wings?

Right now I have the chicks living in the little covered run and the adults in the outside pen area. I've split the hen house in half with hardware cloth so the chicks have one section and the 2 adults the other. This way they roost sort of together and can get used to each other. But it's not ideal. If the chicks can't go into the outside area, then I can't mix them.

Thanks for any insight

Kristen

 

[RonC]

You can clip their wings at any age. You only need to clip one wing and be careful not to clip too much and hurt them. I thought as mine got older and heavier they wouldn't be able to fly as high. I was wrong on that one.

 

[Wissa38]

So I can clip their wings at 8 weeks? Cool.

I've clipped the adults wings, so I'm comfortable doing it, but I was worried about clipping the babies wings.