clipping the wings of a white leghorn...........

[erin3]

i have 3 chicks..........a BO, a RIR and a white leghorn. they are about 5 weeks old and the leghorn is already doing a lot of flying. she is really friendly but a little bit of a spaz and i can tell that given half a chance she will be over the fence. i plan to let them free-range around my fenced yard when they are older...........and with supervision..........and i have a horrible vision of her flying out of the yard. i have read all the opinions on wing clipping but in my case she is going to be in much more danger if she gets out the yard......mainly TRAFFIC......then she would be in the yard. not really any predators in my little yard. anyway, do you think when she is older and sees her much calmer "sisters" not flapping&flying around she will settle down? or since she seems to be the leader will she teach them all to fly? anyway, i most likely will try clipping at least one wing and see how that goes..............how old should she be before i do it?

 

[Wolf-Kim]

I think she is much more likely to teach them to fly-up, rather them teach her to calm down. Just my personal experience, my hens didn't learn to fly until I got a roo, he taught them to fly and be skittish.

I would think you can trim their feathers at any age, because your just cutting the feathers. Just remember to do it on a regular basis, because they will grow back in. I didn't realize how fast they grew back in, until I had a Barred Rock fly over my father's 6 ft privacy fence and into the jaws of the waiting Doberman next door..

-Kim