How old should they be before I clip their wings?

[AlienChick]

Yeah, I'd just wait to see if you need to clip.

I'm in the same boat now.

Mine are 15 weeks old and they just NOW decided they wanted to start flying over the fence.

My "fence" is only some deer netting that I cut in half to make it about 3-feet tall; it's only meant to keep my free-range chickens within their 1/2 acre section and out of my backyard.

I made the mistake of periodically opening the netting and allowing them into my backyard for bug control.

Now they boldly fly over the netting into my backyard whenever they want.

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[Talkinturtles]

Quote:

edited to add:

If you are going to do it do both wings, its a fairly benign process. I used to do parakeets and parrots for training purposes. I eventually found that birds I trimmed stopped trying to fly at all. So I quit.

Clipping both gives them the ability to motor down from a perch or to motor up if another chicken snatches at them. But I would prefer to cover the top of the run so they cant get out. A five foot fence is not enough to keep a determined dog out. Maybe not the dogs you know but a dog that smells yummy chicken on the other side of the fence. So this means if you don't have a run it would be a good idea to build one. with a top. Then you can free range them when you are there to protect them.

Never do both wings. Only one or there is no purpose to clip at all.