Question on when and how to clip Guinea Fowl flight feathers

[NinjaGamer2022]

I watched a video by Brimwood Farms and he recommends clipping there wings before they can fly so they get used to being more grounded. My question is how soon can you clip a Guinea Fowl's flight feathers and how much do you clip? Thx,

 

[Sydney65]

Thank you. I will watch a few videos before I do it. 1 out of the 3 keets we have I believe I can already cut. The other two are not old enough (pretty much just fluff).

Especially if you are relying on them to free range, wingpg clipping is not optimal. I've read all of that about how far they can fly, etc. Mine only fly to get away from a perceived threat. They're basically ground dwellers. But if you have a hen build a nest and a predator comes along, she won't have a chance if she can't fly. Or if the neighbor's dog gets in your yard. I promise if you coop train them, they're always going to come home at night unless your hen has built a nest somewhere.

 

[NatJ]

1 out of the 3 keets we have I believe I can already cut. The other two are not old enough (pretty much just fluff).

You are obviously talking about very young keets here. I had not realized quite how young you were talking about.

...clipping there wings before they can fly so they get used to being more grounded. My question is how soon can you clip...

Now I think I understand better what you are trying to do.
You really want them to NOT learn to fly at the young age they normally would.

I have read that for other birds, like parakeets, if you clip the wing feathers when they are young or do not allow them enough space to fly, they never do learn to fly very well, even if you leave them unclipped later as adults.

Here is a sample article about parakeets:
https://parrotvolancy.com/wing-clipping-early-development/
The author of that article thinks wing clipping when young is a bad idea for the birds they are dealing with.
If you read their reasons, you may get a better idea of whether it will be good for your guineas. I know that your goals are not the same as the goals of that author, and that guineas are not the same as those birds. But they are still birds, so some of the effects would be similar.

I can certainly see that clipping the wings when they are so very young, just getting their first feathers, would interfere with them learning to fly. I cannot say whether that is good or bad, just that I can see why it might make a difference.

 

[R2elk]

I didn't realize how serious the effects could be. Do you think it would be OK if I cut only a few feathers? By a Youtuber I watched he recommends clipping there wings at a young age to get them used to being grounded. When his grew up he didn't clip them anymore and they could fly, but they stayed mostly grounded. His channel is Brimwood Farms. The guineas as have pretty good room I believe. There are around 20-30 chicks including guineas in a extremely large plastic bin (I will have to measure it, but I would guess at least 4 ft long and 1-2 ft height). Thank you for your input.

His conclusions are false. Once guineas grow up the only times that they fly are to escape predators or bullying or when they are going to roost.

They are for the most part ground dwelling birds and will spend the majority of their time puttering around on the ground. This behavior has nothing to do with the person clipping their wings when they were young.

When keets are young they can jump about as high as they can fly. Clipping their wings when they are very young is a waste of time.

 

[R2elk]

The guidelines I find say 3 to 4 square feet each, so about the same as a chicken. Since you have mostly chickens and only a few guineas, I would plan on 4 square feet each, which keeps the math simple.

Adult guineas need an absolute minimum of no less than 4 sq. ft. of clear floor space in the coop. More room is much better. Guineas do not do well cramped into the same size spaces as chickens.

This is only for the coop space. They need lots of run area in addition to coop space.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

There was a recent discussion on this forum about using electric poultry netting:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/posts/25540696

I don’t know how it will go keeping them in the netted pen with clipped wings. I use poultry netting for a rooster bachelor pen and I have one large roo who is pretty good at getting over the 4’ fence with one clipped wing. I really had to cut a lot of feathers to keep him contained.

 

[NatJ]

You do not want to clip into the bloody part in a feather that is still growing.

For any particular feather, once it has quite growing and no longer has blood in the middle, you can clip it. Do not cut so short you cut the bird's wing, but any other length should be fine.

Young birds molt frequently. If you clip feathers when they are young, you will need to re-clip the feathers every time they molt.

Some people wait until the birds are adults, and do all the clipping at once, and are done until the bird molts next year. But you can clip feathers when they are young, and you can clip some feathers one day and others later when those feathers have finished gowing. It's up to you.

 

[R2elk]

Most people do not clip guinea wings as flight is their only real defense against predators.

 

[R2elk]

Once they are free roaming we may stop clipping there wings. By a video I watched if you clip there wings when they are young they will fly less often when they mature because they got used to being grounded. We hope to prevent them for wanting to fly over the fencing. Thank you for the info.

Don't believe everything you see on YouTube.

Mine start flying by the time they are 2 weeks old. That is what a cover on the brooder is for to keep them from flying out of the brooder.

As adults mine stay in their pen most of the year.. Admittedly it is a very large pen. But during breeding season (right now) they do fly out of the pen to escape bullying.

 

[NinjaGamer2022]

Don't believe everything you see on YouTube.

Mine start flying by the time they are 2 weeks old. That is what a cover on the brooder is for to keep them from flying out of the brooder.

As adults mine stay in their pen most of the year.. Admittedly it is a very large pen. But during breeding season (right now) they do fly out of the pen to escape bullying.

Would a covered run attached to a large coop (we will be using 1-2 sheds and add a covered run) be OK? We plan to move them to outdoor fencing once this B!rd F!u passes but that may be sometime.