Can I clip leg feathers?

[Henrik Petersson]

I love some chicken breeds who happen to have feathered legs - Belgian d'Uccles, for example. However, those leg feathers, pretty as they are, seem a bit impractical. I often read how snow and mud can be more dangerous to feathered chicken legs than to naked ones.

So can I clip the leg feathers? It seems straightforward enough; it's not like it's even natural for chickens to have feathered legs in the wild.

Or will clipping leg feathers cause some kind of damage to the chicken of which I don't know? (Apart from the stress of catching and holding it.)

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Causes about as much damage as trimming you hair, mustache or whatever you trim.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

That's what I thought. Thanks.