Pinioning 2 week old keets

[belah39]

Firstly I am not sure how to change title as I wrote 2 weeks old and they are actually 1 week.
Hi all, I have recently got 5, 5 week old keets and 5, 1 week old keets. I have lost my adult ones over a year or 2 due to cars on rd. I am on 35 acres and I am looking at pinioning the 2 week olds as I think the others are likely to old to be done so will have to keep them in large net covered yard.
I have never pinioned before and I am thinking doing one today and seeing how it goes and do others tomorrow if that one is ok. Does anyone here do this? I do know it's better when first born but I have just got them and would prefer to keep them in yard so they can free range and not want to get over 6ft fence to rd but want to stay in paddocks even. Do I dip wing in corn flour after clipping ? Or just put straight back in brooder? Would appreciate help on doing this and not negativity. I wish to learn. I have 5 guinea eggs under a hen so will do those keets almost immediately after hatch. But need to learn properly. I dont want to lose these young keets.

 

[belah39]

this is one of the keets

 

[mkeawsh]

I lost all of mine to foxes and coyotes.

 

[belah39]

I lost all of mine to foxes and coyotes.

Oh no, thankfully we dont have any of those here.

 

[Biddybot]

A week is already too old in my opinion to be doing any pinioning at home. I'd only consider doing it if the keet was newly hatched and barely dry, the same as I wouldn't remove the dew-claws of a puppy that was more than 24 hours old. Fingernail clippers would do if a keet is newly hatched and they'd barely feel it, but at a week old, you must see how active and vital and self-aware they already are. It would be very traumatic for them...

I understand your frustration with your Guineas because mine also used to fly over the fences and I too live next to a road that gets quite busy on the weekends. Yet I only ever lost one to a car...they were actually pretty traffic savvy. Part of that was that they still had their wings so could dodge and fly out of the way, like the ring-necked pheasants that also hang out and parade around our neighbourhood and fly where they please. Being flighted also helped my Guineas stay ahead of other predators of the sort that they wouldn't have encountered if only they'd stayed within the safe fenced part of my yard. And you know what? I always had plenty of Guineas and I believe they were happier birds in the long run for having a degree of free will when it came to the amount of risk they were willing to take. Having the power of flight also made them more brazen and brave and interesting to watch, but again that's just my observation of my own particular birds.

Why not simply clip the flight feathers on a wing or two to keep yours home? You'll get the same results as though they were pinioned except that it's not permanent and you can change your mind about doing it if you don't like how it affects your birds' behaviour. And if your response to that is...well, I dunno...they're really not very tame and I'd have a hard time catching them, then I'd say back that it sounds like they're closer to being feral pets than yard pets, and pinioning a feral (like one of our free-roaming neighbourhood pheasants) would be majorly interfering with their ability to survive a semi-wild life and kind of a rotten thing to do to them. Just my opinion, though. I personally try to think of the birds' interests as much as my own.

 

[BantyChooks]

Firstly I am not sure how to change title as I wrote 2 weeks old and they are actually 1 week.
Hi all, I have recently got 5, 5 week old keets and 5, 1 week old keets. I have lost my adult ones over a year or 2 due to cars on rd. I am on 35 acres and I am looking at pinioning the 2 week olds as I think the others are likely to old to be done so will have to keep them in large net covered yard.
I have never pinioned before and I am thinking doing one today and seeing how it goes and do others tomorrow if that one is ok. Does anyone here do this? I do know it's better when first born but I have just got them and would prefer to keep them in yard so they can free range and not want to get over 6ft fence to rd but want to stay in paddocks even. Do I dip wing in corn flour after clipping ? Or just put straight back in brooder? Would appreciate help on doing this and not negativity. I wish to learn. I have 5 guinea eggs under a hen so will do those keets almost immediately after hatch. But need to learn properly. I dont want to lose these young keets.

Click on "thread tools" then "edit thread". That should bring up the option.

 

[belah39]

A week is already too old in my opinion to be doing any pinioning at home. I'd only consider doing it if the keet was newly hatched and barely dry, the same as I wouldn't remove the dew-claws of a puppy that was more than 24 hours old. Fingernail clippers would do if a keet is newly hatched and they'd barely feel it, but at a week old, you must see how active and vital and self-aware they already are. It would be very traumatic for them...

I understand your frustration with your Guineas because mine also used to fly over the fences and I too live next to a road that gets quite busy on the weekends. Yet I only ever lost one to a car...they were actually pretty traffic savvy. Part of that was that they still had their wings so could dodge and fly out of the way, like the ring-necked pheasants that also hang out and parade around our neighbourhood and fly where they please. Being flighted also helped my Guineas stay ahead of other predators of the sort that they wouldn't have encountered if only they'd stayed within the safe fenced part of my yard. And you know what? I always had plenty of Guineas and I believe they were happier birds in the long run for having a degree of free will when it came to the amount of risk they were willing to take. Having the power of flight also made them more brazen and brave and interesting to watch, but again that's just my observation of my own particular birds.

Why not simply clip the flight feathers on a wing or two to keep yours home? You'll get the same results as though they were pinioned except that it's not permanent and you can change your mind about doing it if you don't like how it affects your birds' behaviour. And if your response to that is...well, I dunno...they're really not very tame and I'd have a hard time catching them, then I'd say back that it sounds like they're closer to being feral pets than yard pets, and pinioning a feral (like one of our free-roaming neighbourhood pheasants) would be majorly interfering with their ability to survive a semi-wild life and kind of a rotten thing to do to them. Just my opinion, though. I personally try to think of the birds' interests as much as my own.

Sadly I lost my GF years ago to cars and I hadnt clipped their wings. I am hoping my fence I have now near road will deter them a little. I will clip wings a little and hope that they stay in the large area they have and not the road.

 

[belah39]

I lost all of mine to foxes and coyotes.

Thankfully we dont have anything like that here. Only worry would be quolls and havent had an issue with them. I think that's because of my dogs.