Flyers, How not to???

[jafo]

Hello Peeple,
I just spent the better part of the day, what with going to buy fenceposts, barring holes, setting them, then stringing 4 foot poultry fence aroud 2/3 of them. Took a short breather, and watched one by one all 6 of our Orpingtons fly over the 4 foot fencing, and head towards the woods,,,,,,,( first time, I usually let the out to run while we are home, but not yet today, and now I don't need to lol ) where they'll stay way too late in the afternoon before even thinking about coming home. Last night we had to herd 'em up to come in,they were 50 yards in the woods. I put up new fence, larger area today thinking I could keep them in,,but they have other ideas. Short of hog tying 'em down, or leaving them in the coop,,,,,,,how do you crop thier wings, so they can't get airborn???

 

[Imp]

Jafo,

Here's a link that can help with wing clipping instructions. If your birds are young they will probably fly less when they get older and heavier. Good luck.

Imp


https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=148687

 

[Uppity Peon]

The down side of clipping wings is that they are less able to evade predators.

If you do clip wings just remember to cut feathers only on one wing, so as to make them imbalanced.

 

[jafo]

Well, it seems there's way too much to "explore" now in the new area. It's like 1200 square feet. That's a lot for 6 chickens I think, plus thier 6x8 palace. So far, we're holding off on clipping the wings, for the predatatory reason. We do have a lot of predators 'round here,,especially during winter. Thanks for the advice, and the info.

 

[damselfish]

How old are they? Orpingtons get pretty heavy...you may only have a short-term problem before they can't get that far off the ground.