Clipping Chicken Wings?

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

How old should a chick be before clipping its wings? And how exactly do you do it?

 

[nanawendy]

Do a search ... they have charts that will be visual and specific. I don't clip unless there is a problem. (like flying out of the coop )

 

[hennyannie]

And sometimes it does not work.

 

[Illia]

Personally I don't clip wings until they're about 5 months old or older.

 

[Nicole01]

My girls love using their wings! Our coop will be fully secured, so no clipping of the wings unless they fly on top of the house when we go outside together.

 

[cmitchell]

I want my light brahma & mixed breed flock to free range in a small pasture we have in our back yard. But a couple neighbors don't appreciate my chickens in their yards (don't blame them). They can't fit through the fence so I want to clip their wings so they won't fly over it. Anyone have any luck doing this? How far from the wing bone do I clip?

 

[Want Less]

We let our flock free range in the backyard (supervised) frequently so we keep their wings clipped. Its a personal preference obviously. We are introducing some youngsters to the flock this year and will be eventually clipping them as well for the same reason, so I've recently been asking the same question. Most common answer Ive gotten so far is around 5-6 months. I'm told it is somewhat pointless to do before then because they are growing & replacing feathers so fast that the clipped flight feathers will keep growing back in.

And for what its worth, there are several videos on Youtube that show how to clip feathers. We had our vet show us first hand on one of ours just so we felt more confident, but the videos are very helpful as well.

 

[suzeqf]

my grandfather would clip wings but i never worked we always had a few we had to chase down that's why i'm putting some type of netting on the top of my run i've had my fill of chasing hens