Official BYC Poll: Do You Clip Your Chickens' Wings?

[ChickenFriends234]

I never clip my chicken's wings they use it to escape predators.

 

[Ebony Rose]

Depends on the flock. If I am raising a bunch of escape artists, then yes, I clip them, often starting with only one wing, and if they persist, then the second wing as well. If they seem perfectly content to stay at home, then I allow them to keep all of their beautiful plumage.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

hens are in a covered run, so they can keep their wings, but the ducks we had to clip. They were using the ROAD as a runway, flying around and then landing on the road in front of the house.

SO many times cars would stop in front of the house and I would have that slow motion thought that starts with "why is that car stopped like that ? it is so dangerous to stop there, there is a blind curve-" and then goes straight to me running like a demented completely ungraceful maniac because I KNOW why they are stopped and staring at the road in disbelief. There is a white duck walking home after her happy little fly-by to the neighbor's house (doing circles over their dog's head no less).


I had too many heart attacks to count before we found a youtube showing it is painless and injury-free. I thought it was painful or dangerous until I saw a 13yr old girl's video. She did it for her ducks in a few minutes once a year. I was so happy! We had been considering giving the ducks away or even moving them into the freezer in order to not have someone die in a car accident in front of the house.

 

[CreveChris]

Cati (our roo) is still trying to fly up to sit on the roof of his tractor. Marge flew over the 6-foot iron fence once, then called, "oh, help!" I rescued her and she's not done it again.

The forest looks exciting until you're in it, and the Husky trail we built is very useful to the hawks and crows who sit high in the trees above it.

Crevecoeurs are called good flyers, but are not the bravest of souls, wearing those fancy head feathers. I supervise their free range time, but we all feel safer with them in the tractor when I'm not watching them like a hawk.

 

[Castlewood]

We clipped one wing on each of our three 5mo Silver Leghorns just a couple weeks back because they kept jumping/flying over the 6+' fence! Haven't had to clip anyone else's though.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Crevecoeurs are called good flyers, but are not the bravest of souls, wearing those fancy head feathers.

is it just me or do they look like they were part of the original line up of The Rolling Stones ?

They look like bad-boy-rock-stars to me

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

I clip certain chickens wings. If they fly the fence 3 times, they're gettin clipped!

I am imagining you have a big board in the run with columns and pictures/names of each hen. They get a checkmark for each 'fence-infraction' and on the third checkmark there is a trip to the barber's.

In my imagination the flock stands around looking at the scoreboard discussing the odds of getting caught out and how to play the system.

 

[Tre3hugger]

I am imagining you have a big board in the run with columns and pictures/names of each hen. They get a checkmark for each 'fence-infraction' and on the third checkmark there is a trip to the barber's.

In my imagination the flock stands around looking at the scoreboard discussing the odds of getting caught out and how to play the system.

Thank you for the chuckle this morning. That is hilarious!

 

[CreveChris]

is it just me or do they look like they were part of the original line up of The Rolling Stones ?

They look like bad-boy-rock-stars to me View attachment 2512790

They start out with their hairstyles and horns and end up with the lifestyle.

 

[TheCrochetChick]

They don’t get clipped unless they become a problem. If they do need it, it generally only needs to be for the timeframe before their next molt, and then I don’t seem to have any issues - I do one wing so they still get some lift if they need to get up off the ground but not enough for the sustained flap-jump to escape. They train themselves that they “can’t” get wherever they were going while clipped, so can continue to be left alone if they behave. Lol. It was especially helpful when I brought in a mature call duck and her 6 ducklings, because she was WILD when she first came and I think I would’ve lost her somewhere if she hadn’t been clipped before I got her. She’s great now, molted this fall and can fly again, but she’s settled down and is totally chill. I’ve also clipped my extra boys’ wings to make sure they stay in their temporary pen and don’t make their way back into the main pen and get the snot kicked out of them by the big fella.

Yep, i only clip when they stert flying over the fence a lot, but otherwise, no.