Clipping wings. How, What when?

[ChickDaze]

I am entirely too fed up with having to watch the two almost six month old leghorns every time they go to the yard. Five foot fence! Nothing to it! How do I clip them? When is the best time of day? When is the right age? How far up do I go on the wing? It is one wing, first ten feathers from tip, right?

 

[Judy]

from our learning center:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-wingclipping.html

 

[mhhousley]

Quote:
I probably should have read that first before what happened to me today! Please everyone read this if you're a newbie to clipping wings... lets just say, I ended up with my hand covered in blood.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=579663

 

[Stacykins]

mhhousley, sorry that you had a bad experience! I know when I clip my parrot's feathers I always inspect closely for blood feathers, and defer wing clipping until they mature and dry out.

It is good to have some form of styptic on hand, either the spiffy gel kind in a syringe or plain cornstarch or flour. Also, when clipping wings, keep a pair of pliers handy too. If you were to accidentally cut a blood feather, the only way to effectively stop the bleeding is to pull it. Think of a cut blood feather like an open sink faucet, it'll just keep flowing. Pulling the feather and applying local pressure allows the skin to seal over and shut that faucet off.