Question on when and how to clip Guinea Fowl flight feathers

[NinjaGamer2022]

A covered run will work fine.

If I kept the guineas with the chickens in a large coop would it be alright? Thx,

 

[NatJ]

So as long as I don't cut the stick-like part of the feathers when they're young they won't get hurt right? Thx,

When the feather is young, yes I think that is right. Once it has gotten long and spread out and looks like a feather, it is probably fine.

I can't seem to find good photos, and I can't think of a better way to describe it. But I feel like it's fairly easy to recognize when I see it. So if you grab a guinea to clip the feathers on its wing, just look before you cut, and there's a good chance you will recognize if there is a feather that should not be cut.

 

[NinjaGamer2022]

When the feather is young, yes I think that is right. Once it has gotten long and spread out and looks like a feather, it is probably fine.

I can't seem to find good photos, and I can't think of a better way to describe it. But I feel like it's fairly easy to recognize when I see it. So if you grab a guinea to clip the feathers on its wing, just look before you cut, and there's a good chance you will recognize if there is a feather that should not be cut.

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).

 

[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.

 

[NinjaGamer2022]

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


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.

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.

 

[NatJ]

I didn't realize how serious the effects could be. Do you think it would be OK if I cut only a few feathers?

I don't know for sure.
I also think the effects would be more serious for a bird that expects to fly a lot, and less serious for a bird that mostly lives on the ground (like guineas.)

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.

It would be interesting to clip some and not others, and see if you notice any differences after they grow up. Of course that would only work if you could tell which ones had been clipped, which might require something like legbands.

Guineas normally spend a lot of their time on the ground even if you do not clip their wings, so I do not know whether his actually flew less because of the clipping.

I have read about guineas, but I've only had experience with chickens. I know it is normal for chicks to fly a lot at certain ages, but as they grow older and heavier they naturally fly less. I have seen this on many chicks, so I know it is the normal pattern. But if I clipped their wings as chicks, and then saw that the adults mostly did not fly, I might think the clipping made the difference (even if it did not.)

I would expect guineas to be like chickens in that respect: lots of flying practice at certain young ages, but much less flying when grown up because they are heavier and flying is more work. But I'm not a guinea expert, so what I expect might actually be wrong.

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.

You will probably want to give them quite a bit more space soon.

Common guidelines call for 1 square foot of space per bird by the time they are 2-3 weeks old, and 2 square feet each for weeks 4-8. After that the guidelines say 4 square feet per bird into adulthood.

20 square feet of space would be 4x5 feet. 30 square feet of space would be 6x5 feet.
Doubling that (around age 4 weeks) would be 40-60 square feet, which is about 5x8 up to to 5x12 or 6x10 feet.

 

[NinjaGamer2022]

I don't know for sure.
I also think the effects would be more serious for a bird that expects to fly a lot, and less serious for a bird that mostly lives on the ground (like guineas.)


It would be interesting to clip some and not others, and see if you notice any differences after they grow up. Of course that would only work if you could tell which ones had been clipped, which might require something like legbands.

Guineas normally spend a lot of their time on the ground even if you do not clip their wings, so I do not know whether his actually flew less because of the clipping.

I have read about guineas, but I've only had experience with chickens. I know it is normal for chicks to fly a lot at certain ages, but as they grow older and heavier they naturally fly less. I have seen this on many chicks, so I know it is the normal pattern. But if I clipped their wings as chicks, and then saw that the adults mostly did not fly, I might think the clipping made the difference (even if it did not.)

I would expect guineas to be like chickens in that respect: lots of flying practice at certain young ages, but much less flying when grown up because they are heavier and flying is more work. But I'm not a guinea expert, so what I expect might actually be wrong.



You will probably want to give them quite a bit more space soon.

Common guidelines call for 1 square foot of space per bird by the time they are 2-3 weeks old, and 2 square feet each for weeks 4-8. After that the guidelines say 4 square feet per bird into adulthood.

20 square feet of space would be 4x5 feet. 30 square feet of space would be 6x5 feet.
Doubling that (around age 4 weeks) would be 40-60 square feet, which is about 5x8 up to to 5x12 or 6x10 feet.

I didn't realize how much room they needed. How son do you think they'll need it? 2 our of the 3 keets have not feathers, one does.
How much square footage would each Guinea need once they mature? Thank you. I will have to think more about clipping there wings. I guess I might experiment with doing it and not, we'll see. I plan to take photos of the birds soon and post them, not sure about today though.

 

[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.

 

[NinjaGamer2022]

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.

I just had a talk with my family and they're planning on having them in a movable electric fence in the future because we can't have them free roaming due to neighbors and are forest. We will move the fence often since we have acreage. If I clipped there wings could they still jump over the fence. I would prefer not to clip there wings but we do have predators and it would mean death if they aren't in fencing. Thx,