Clipping Wings - Under Construction

[casportpony]

Adults? Neighbors adult peafowl follow same feather replacement pattern as my chickens. They have at least 50 birds.

One yearling, two adults. They didn't re-grow all 10 flight feathers, just a few.

 

[centrarchid]

One yearling, two adults. They didn't re-grow all 10 flight feathers, just a few.

Are the feathers replaced in a pattern like chickens? I am following a couple of my chickens very closely collecting flight feathers and marking them in the sequence they fall out and replaced. The feathers are labelled with a dated piece of tape and placed in a bag. So far the feathers are coming out pairwise (left and right). The most inner primaries feathers come out first starting back in April. With subsequent losses every three to four weeks. Final primaries to come out are not replaced until November. The pattern holds for both sexes even while hens are broody. Secondaries follow a similar pattern. This makes so capacity for flight not lost.

It has been a while but I have mess with production breeds that delayed start of flight feather replacement and feathers were dropped in groups making so the birds are effectively flightless for over a month. With those, clipping the feathers immediately after completion of molt will give flight control for almost 10 months. The Plymouth Rock breed complex is one that can have the rapid feather replacement pattern. They are not stellar fliers.

I would still at least consider option of bilateral clipping and not restrict cutting to primaries. Some of the secondaries can be clipped as well without degrading ability of birds to protect flanks from cold wet.

The escapement issues I have addressed are more than outright flight. They include clambering as well. The secondaries alone can enable clambering up steep grades.