clipping wings

[jgilliatt]

What are your thoughts on clipping wings?

 

[fancy]

If they can fly out of their area into another that may not be safe, like predators or the road perhaps, then my vote is to clip. I lost 2 chicks (6 weeks old) because I didn't think they could fly over a 4 foot fence. We clip everyones wings now so they stay safe. I'm sure others will disagree, but for us this is what works!

 

[SJensen]

I clipped my chickens' wings to keep them safe -- our neighbors have big dogs and I couldn't have them flying into their yard. (Details on what we did on my blog in the December 2009 archives )

One thing to beware of: don't clip a "blood feather"! A feather that hasn't finished growing still has a blood vessel in the shaft -- if cut it can bleed a chicken to death! I unknowingly cut one of these and was worried sick for a week. Luckily the bleeding stopped and there were no complications.

 

[churchx3]

Quote:
I clipped one wing on each of my chickens just to keep them off balance but several still managed to fly up and over a 6 ft fence. Unfortunately my dog got a hold of a couple of them but they did survive. Just last week I ended up going and buying some deer netting from TSC and putting that over their run. It is easy to work with and very lightweight. Don't depend on wing clipping alone.