Turner_Family_Flock
Chirping
- May 16, 2020
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- 88
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Our chickens are getting big.
They're about a month and a half from when we should start expecting to see their first eggs.
And because our chickens are growing up, we have a new challenge that we need to face.
They're learning to fly.
Normally it's not that big of deal. They flutter their wings to get to their favorite roosting spots, or they flap their wings as they run across the yard.
But sometimes they can get a bit of air, and it worries us.
As in- our birds trying to fly to the top of their coop when they're in the yard-from where they could hop the fence. We know most of our neighbors so this wouldn't be THAT big of a deal if the fence they keep trying to get to wasn't blocking them from a massive mess of sharp, half-dead blackberry bushes on the side that we don't actually know our neighbors.
If one of our birds was to fly up onto that fence and jump down into the vines- and then started to panic and thrash, it would get stuck and get hurt. That side of the fence also has multiple cats that hang out in the yard and know how to get through those bushes.
If one of our birds became wounded there, it could be finished off by a cat that saw it was completely helpless.
So wing-clipping is pretty high on our priority list.
My father grew up with chickens. He has (less than) fond memories of being chased by roosters and hens alike. Clipping wings is nothing incredibly new to him- and we've been researching the best ways to clip wings.
How to hold the bird, how to keep them calm, how far along the feathers we need to clip, what feathers need to be clipped, all that. We're not worried about HOW to do it. We're worried about WHEN to do it.
What we CANT find is how old do they need to be to safely and effectively clip their wings, and how long should we wait between clippings? Are our nearly full-grown hens ready to be clipped, or should we wait until they start laying?
Maybe this is a simple question, but we haven't been able to find answers. Because we're limited to a backyard, we don't have lots of open space for our birds to flap around. They must be clipped for their own safety, especially so that they can be allowed in the yard with only partial supervision- which will give them much more time to graze, to forage, and to hunt down bugs in the garden.
They're about a month and a half from when we should start expecting to see their first eggs.
And because our chickens are growing up, we have a new challenge that we need to face.
They're learning to fly.
Normally it's not that big of deal. They flutter their wings to get to their favorite roosting spots, or they flap their wings as they run across the yard.
But sometimes they can get a bit of air, and it worries us.
As in- our birds trying to fly to the top of their coop when they're in the yard-from where they could hop the fence. We know most of our neighbors so this wouldn't be THAT big of a deal if the fence they keep trying to get to wasn't blocking them from a massive mess of sharp, half-dead blackberry bushes on the side that we don't actually know our neighbors.
If one of our birds was to fly up onto that fence and jump down into the vines- and then started to panic and thrash, it would get stuck and get hurt. That side of the fence also has multiple cats that hang out in the yard and know how to get through those bushes.
If one of our birds became wounded there, it could be finished off by a cat that saw it was completely helpless.
So wing-clipping is pretty high on our priority list.
My father grew up with chickens. He has (less than) fond memories of being chased by roosters and hens alike. Clipping wings is nothing incredibly new to him- and we've been researching the best ways to clip wings.
How to hold the bird, how to keep them calm, how far along the feathers we need to clip, what feathers need to be clipped, all that. We're not worried about HOW to do it. We're worried about WHEN to do it.
What we CANT find is how old do they need to be to safely and effectively clip their wings, and how long should we wait between clippings? Are our nearly full-grown hens ready to be clipped, or should we wait until they start laying?
Maybe this is a simple question, but we haven't been able to find answers. Because we're limited to a backyard, we don't have lots of open space for our birds to flap around. They must be clipped for their own safety, especially so that they can be allowed in the yard with only partial supervision- which will give them much more time to graze, to forage, and to hunt down bugs in the garden.
