Clipped Wings & Vertical Plank Fences - A Warning (GRAPHIC)

[eggs_on_legs]

Good evening,

I'm writing to outline an oversight that lead to the death of one of my flock this morning - I hope by bringing this to people's attention her death will not be totally in vain.

I recently clipped the wings of my flock (just on the one wing) to stop them from digging up my new potato patch - this worked very well until I went out this morning to find a hen with it's neck stuck inbetween two of the planks making up the wall of the coop, she was dead. I can only assume that she took flight, as usual, to fly over the fence but with clipped wings she quickly lost control and fell straight down onto the fence, landing her head inbetween the planks, where she was killed instantly.

Below is a picture of the fence in question (hen blurred);

And also a very crude diagram to explain in more detail;

If this has happened to anyone else I would love to hear about it - and I urge everyone to inspect their coop for snag areas like this!

Thank you and keep well.

 

[Neggative]

ouch! thats terrible!!!

 

[eggs_on_legs]

ouch! thats terrible!!!

Thank you, it's a sad day alright, and such a shock to go out and see.

 

[Neggative]

thats a terrible way for a chicken to go alright....

 

[rosemarythyme]

So sorry for your loss, but thanks for sharing this as a warning to others who might have a similar set up.

 

[Crestcrazy2]

Sorry about your chicken

 

[Ruthster55]

Sorry about your loss. Sounds like partial escape was worse than either full escape (no wing clipping) or no escape at all (cutting primaries plus the edges of secondaries and coverts or clipping the primaries of both wings).

Of course, always be gentle when clipping and only cut the last parts of the wings and not anything that has a blood supply.

Keep an eye on when they molt and present new feathers as well.

If they are too difficult or flighty to catch during the daytime, try catching at night with a headlamp and a steady hand and some good scissors...

https://poultrykeeper.com/general-chickens/how-to-clip-a-wing-to-stop-chickens-flying/