Need advice on clipping wings.

[degan]

OK heres the plan. I have two females and one male. I got them when they were 9 months old. They had been free range before that. I have them in a coop with a 10x18 out side run. I want to let them free range but I'm terrified they will take off. They have been in the coop for 3 months. So my plan is to clip their wings so I can control them better and herd them back in the coop at night. I'm hoping by next year I won't have to clip them because they will feel like this is home. What do you think? I also need instructions on how to clip them, I want them to be able to have some fight but not be able to hid in a 40ft tree. I'm thinking of building some perches outside for them to jump up on so they feel more secure. Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

If you clip there wings they may not be able to get away from predators, If it were me I would just open there door let them come and go at will (don't force them out), keep there food and water in the pen so they know where home is.

 

[chickenzoo]

They will be more valuable to predators clipped, but my one clipped female could still jump onto a 12 foot high barn w/o problems. You only clip one wing on each bird. When holding out the wing, you only clip the flight feathers (longest ones) in half, about half way down the wing. I normally skip the first flight feather , just so it looks nice when the wing is folded. Everyone has their own opinion on how to do it, but this is how I clip mine and all the parrots I've had.

 

[degan]

If you only clip one wing does that not put them off balance?

 

[chickenzoo]

Quote:
That is the whole point of clipping wings, it is to put them off balance so they can not fly. If you clip both wings, they can fly but with much greater effort...

 

[degan]

OK I get it now. Will they still be able to jump high. How tall should I make the perches for them?

 

[Kenboy]

I would not clip their wings. Peafowl do not fly away, they walk away. Birds with only one wing clipped will stop and try to fly when a predator comes and flop over right in the predators mouth. When you turn a peafowl loose, you have no way of knowing if it will ever come back. If you want you birds to free range you just have to take your chances.

 

[kybeagle]

Once you clip a wing do you ever have to clip it again and if so, how often?

 

[chickenzoo]

You can reclip if needed once the peafowl molt, but it will stay that way until they molt again. If you are freeranging in a safe area during the day, and the peafowl return to the pen at night, then clipping is not too much a problem. i clipped all my peafowl when I first got them, but now I don't need too.

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

Quote:
Birds with only one wing clipped will stop and try to fly when a predator comes and flop over right in the predators mouth. When you turn a peafowl loose, you have no way of knowing if it will ever come back. If you want you birds to free range you just have to take your chances.

I wish you would have told that to my Java male, Because the last time I seen him he was about 100' up and climbing with no signs of coming down and he was headed South, he looked like a speck on my glasses the last time I seen him. that was 2 months ago and he is probably down on the South Texas Beaches checking out the scenery.