I clipped my 2 hens wings, there still flying out?

[capthollis]

Did I not trim them back far enough.? I did one wing, but it didn't stop both from getting out of the run. I had a wild cat problem today that were attacking them in my presence , but I added him to the promise land list rather quickly. I truly believe he pushed these fresh clipped birds back out of that pin
Nice run they have. He is dead, and will
Not deal with ferrel cats with a no tolerance policy I have. When I caught him in the pin he was thrashing them to pieces , then he seen me, so halled *** he did! Well he stopped about 150 yds back In my pasture do I sent a round where it counted. 1 shot one kill "semper fi". He had been my culprit.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Did I not trim them back far enough.? I did one wing, but it didn't stop both from getting out of the run. I had a wild cat problem today that were attacking them in my presence , but I added him to the promise land list rather quickly. I truly believe he pushed these fresh clipped birds back out of that pin
Nice run they have. He is dead, and will
Not deal with ferrel cats with a no tolerance policy I have. When I caught him in the pin he was thrashing them to pieces , then he seen me, so halled *** he did! Well he stopped about 150 yds back In my pasture do I sent a round where it counted. 1 shot one kill "semper fi". He had been my culprit.

How high is the run fence. My girls wings are clipped and they still fly up to the deck railing at 40" high with no problem.

 

[capthollis]

It's 5' tall, , and areas are 6' tall.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

HHMMMM. I don't know. It is supposed to make flight lopsided so they don't want to fly. Did you cut all 10 flight feathers to half length? I know some of mine have pulled out some of the cut ones because I am starting to see full length flight feathers coming in.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

There it is...just supposed to clip the one side...I don't clip since they need every advantage to avoid predators here. Six feet is at the low side for my chickens, have seen them fly 18 feet straight up to get out of a pen or get into a tree. Putting a top on the run is the only solution there. Or doing all the wildlife a favor and eliminating feral cats.

 

[capthollis]

I did only clip one wing.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

You said the cat was in the pen, this means you need to put a top on it to keep predators out or possibly face the same problem again. Below are two diagrams of how to clip a wing.

 

[jak2002003]

Good job you did not clip the chickens wings properly and they could still fly! If the cat was IN the pen and they could not get OUT than if would be really bad.

I don't cut the wing at all, because they use them to fly away form danger and predators.

I think you need to cover the top of your run to stop the cats getting in, and the chickens getting out.

If they are free ranging they can use their wings to fly up into trees to get away from the ground predators like cats and dogs.

 

[CarolynF]

I trimmed one wing on each of my girls. The black australorp can still fly over a 4' fence. The EE cannot.
Light breeds can fly more easily, heavier breeds not so much. (the EE isn't heavy, just less determined)
The secure pen we have is predator proofed with wire over the top and encasing the area under the dirt, plus a wire mesh apron 18"-24" out from the sides.

The open area they get to play in during the day has 4' fencing which wasn't enough to keep the aussie inside. So we added some 2' wide chicken wire to the top that leans toward the inside of the enclosure. It's not fancy looking but it works!

 

[capthollis]

Thank You all for the great info again! Awesome!