How can you tell you need to clip the wings?

[LilyD]

Okay today has been very crazy. I gave my 14 7 week old babies some pizza crust from supper and they were all very happy so I went back in to wait until dusk to put them in. When it started getting dark I went outside to put them to bed and noticed that Judy Moody was on top of the gate. I didn't think anything of it they had done that before. Then the light in the coop started flashing like crazy and then went out. It was a brooder lamp with the cage in the bottom. Just on right before dark to help them find their roosts for bed. Well Alexis has hopped onto the cage under the light bulb. Thank goodness I had taken out the really hot one and put in a 20 watt for a night light or she would have gotten fried. I took the cage off the light and moved it to the other side of the coop and went to get my son to help me clip their wings. I figured they were old enough it was time now they will be 8 weeks old on Tuesday. When I got back out the door Amber and Julia were on top of the coop roof trying to figure out how to get down. Okay We were not way in the realm of what I could not handle. I called to DH and DS to help and together we wrangled the chicks into the coop Where they proceeded to fly up to the rafters. We have wire mesh on all the vents so they can't get out of those but boy they were flying pretty high. We got all their wings clipped and checked again and even with the wings clipped they can still make it almost to the roof in the coop. Wow someone must have sold me super birds. I would have taken pictures but it was too crazy and I ran out of hands trying to catch birds.

Has anyone else had their chickens turn into eagles and try to fly away?

 

[Attila the Hen]

I had to have my bird's wings clipped because they were flying over the fence and the neighbor didn't like it. I wish I hadn't had to do it because this means they can't fly away from predators and if they could fly it would be possible for them to sleep on top of the coop box instead of inside it where it is very warm. Now I have to run a fan on them in the box on hot nights.
So, if they are safe in a wired run I would let them fly and sleep where they want.
Just my opinion.

 

[LilyD]

The only problem is that there is no fencing on top of the roof for the coop and they are able to hop out of the run that way. They didn't think of that thank goodness and were just hopping from the coop roof back into the pen again. I don't have a roof on my run since it's a huge run and they hadn't flown out before pretty much happy to hang out together and eat the bugs and grass. The funny thing is after we clipped their wings (We did the right one on each bird) they can still fly pretty high about 2 or 3 feet. Not high enough to get out anymore but definitely enough to get away if they needed to. We don't have many predators where they are since their run is inside my 1/2 acre dog run and my Doberman keeps all the critters away for them so I think they will be okay without getting into the trees.