Peggy + clipped wings: penned or not?

[zazouse]

I dig up clumps of grass that has gone to seed and put it in my baby pens and they love it, i also always have a fgarden going so my birds get all kinds of eats besides free ranged foods.. they love squash, berries,greens,beets and beet top, the list goes on. a penned pea isn't gonna eat much so try not to worry he will be ok.. a change of senery in the pen helps with a boardom, cut some tree limbs and put them in there for a couple days.. dump a load of dirt in the center of the pen.. just change it up in there, even card board boxes and entertain a bird for a couple days.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

It's hard to believe Peggy has been penned for over three months now. By my estimate his wings were clipped around 3.5 months ago.
He's been making a lot of feather growing progress lately and so I'm starting to wonder how I'll know when he has enough feathers to fly.

Any pointers on this? Can anyone tell me how many flight feathers peas actually have per wing (each of rust colored, blue-black and barred)? And how many do they need to actually fly? Once I open the door to his pen there's no going back, but I doubt he has to have every possible feather in order to fly...


"Let me out! I want to be a Free Bird again!"

(please excuse the messy pen)

 

[casportpony]

Not sure, but I'll go count one if you want. If I had to guess, I would say 10-12 based on this photo:


-Kathy

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Wow, you think he only needs 10-12 feathers per wing to fly?
I don't want let him out until he can really fly.
Actually, my biggest concern isn't getting UP (they can jump so well).
I'm worried about what happens if he roosts high in a tree and then wants to fly down without enough feathers?

 

[casportpony]

Mine fly okay when missing a few feathers, but we don't have tall trees, so I'm not sure.

-Kathy

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Maybe those of you with feather-growing-out experiences might be able to tell me more if you see a few pictures. Any opinion about how close this looks to strong flight ability?

 

[casportpony]

It's getting close!

-Kathy

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Thanks Kathy! That's what I'm hoping.
He's going to be so happy to be up in a tree at night, poor guy.

 

[casportpony]

If you can, try to get some pictures of him when you cut him loose, could be very entertaining, lol.

-Kathy

 

[zazouse]

It's hard to believe Peggy has been penned for over three months now. By my estimate his wings were clipped around 3.5 months ago.
He's been making a lot of feather growing progress lately and so I'm starting to wonder how I'll know when he has enough feathers to fly.

Any pointers on this? Can anyone tell me how many flight feathers peas actually have per wing (each of rust colored, blue-black and barred)? And how many do they need to actually fly? Once I open the door to his pen there's no going back, but I doubt he has to have every possible feather in order to fly...


"Let me out! I want to be a Free Bird again!"

(please excuse the messy pen)

Turn him loose he has plenty feathers to fly up out of danger, do both wings look like the picture.. he looks ready to fly IMO