Clipped Chicken Wings

[nibs]

I'm about to clip the wings of my chickens however, I have some concerns. First off how high can they fly once they've been clipped? They have roosts that are about 1 1/2 feet off the coop floor, and the fence is around 5 feet tall. Basically they need to be able to get on the roosts, but not on the fence. Do you think I'll have a problem?

Thank you!

 

[Whittni]

Clip 1 (one) wing. Clipping both won't do anything, think of it like a fan. Chickens can get about two feet off the ground when they are clipped.

 

[Vicky2479]

I clip both wings on all mine so they don't become a meal fo the dogs next door, I had some do it for me the first time with a little Banty, he only did one wing and she still ended up on my garage roof so have done both ever since

 

[perchie.girl]

The main flight feathers are the first few at the ends of their wings thats what gives them the power to take off from the ground. Clipping one sets them into a spiral and off balance. If you clip them both they will have enough power to motor off the ground and travel some distance while flapping and running.

In my opinion clipping both is better for the bird. What you can do if they are having trouble getting up on the perch is build them either a ramp or a shorter take off point to get up there. Like a cinderblock or something like that. But with your perches only being eighteen inches off the ground they should be able to hop up with a flap or two. The other consideration is getting down.

I set my perches at four feet off the ground to give my birds exercise. And I have an intermediate perch at about two feet up. I watched it takes six feet of flying to get down four feet from that perch. My chickens were all large fowl. (starting over in the spring) Just remember IF they need to escape a predator leaving the feathers in tact is your safest bet. So Clipping means securing that run with a cover at the very least a net. So... if you have a net no need to clip....

Five feet tall for a fence is kind of low any way. When the birds are scared or motiviated in some way even clipped wings wont keep them in. just my opinion....

Oh and make sure there is nothing close enough to the fence that they CAN get on to make hop to the top easier.

Good luck.

deb