Chickens on the Wing?

[SurprisingWoman]

So, my little girls are 8.5 weeks old and they are getting BRAVE! They have a tractor but I let them free range almost all day every day.

Yesterday I was picking sour cherries from a ladder and they were trying to see what "Mom" was doing (I am assuming) and flew to the top of the composting bin to get higher.

My DH is concerned about them getting into the neighbor's yard since their dog, Oscar, would not be a chicken friendly animal.

I have six foot cinder block walls on two sides and six foot chain link with the brown privacy vinyl on the other (we live on a corner.)

I have read about wing clipping but I can't tell if they are too young and I can see from my research it isn't always effective.

How adventurous do young chicks get? Ours have explored about 1/5 of our half acre so they are getting braver but mostly stick to the garden and flower beds around the fence.

Thanks,
Brenda

 

[raspeary]

I don't know your answers. Mine stay in there tractor all day. Our dog will not be nice to them. Just giving you a bump up.

 

[cmom]

I don't know what is a good age to clip the wings but here is info. Hopefully someone will have an snswer.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-wingclipping.html
http://www.poultryhelp.com/wingclipping.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Clipping_Chicken_Wings/
http://successwithpoultry.blogspot.com/2007/09/wing-clipping-clipping-wings-of-chicken.html

 

[Judy]

Some breeds fly better than others, and younger chicks often fly better than mature birds. You can check out your breed for flying on Henderson's chart, which has some information about it:

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

I'd do the clipping, myself, in that situation.

 

[SurprisingWoman]

Thanks for the help guys, it looks like trimming would be okay, even at this age.

Wish me luck!

 

[Rootball]

you can trim wings at any age...its like cutting hair