clipping wings

[cowtown chick]

I just got new chickens, they are approx 2-3 weeks old. one of the chickens already flew from one side of the box to the other, at what age do I need to clip wings? and what are thoughts on clipping wings? good? bad? I'm very green at this, I have no idea.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

With young birds like you have, the best solution is a lid on the brooder. Ours is made of hardware cloth.

When they are older and have their grown-up feathers, it's very easy to clip them. You'll have to do it twice a year, after each moult.

We clip all wings, both sides, because our birds MUST stay in their chicken pasture. Our neighbor put his garden right next to it.

The reason to clip wings is to keep chickens behind a fence. If you don't have a fence or your chickens aren't getting over it, there's no reason to do it and I wouldn't bother.

The downside to clipping wings is that there's some thought that unclipped birds can fly away from ground-based predators. Since most of our losses are to hawks, it wouldn't make a bit of difference to our birds.

There are instructions on how to clip wings in the BYC Learning Center. Get a helper and a sharp pair of scissors, and it only takes seconds per bird.