Terrified to clip a chickens wing

[BigBlueHen53]

It's "How to Clip Trim a Chicken's Wing to Prevent Flight". The important thing is, just clip the flight feathers of ONE wing.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Hello, recently my chickens have started hopping the fence and I looked up how to clip they're wings and it look pretty scary. Is there any tips y'all can give me or things to avoid?

It’s easy, there’s lots of videos on YouTube. I was really intimidated and scared to. I just hold the chicken in my lap on a towel and hold out the wing and cut the primary feathers on one wing. I just use my sewing shears. There is usually 10 and you don’t have to cut them short for them to not be able to fly. I guess it’s called a beauty cut and it doesn’t show when their wings are closed.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Another tip: do this after dusk when they have roosted, do not try to chase them down during the day. And if you are doing it by yourself, get one of those headlamp things that strap around your head and leave your hands free! Walmart has them in the camping section.

 

[Cynthia12]

Not sure this tip has been given...only trim one wing. Faulters the flight better.

 

[Cynthia12]

I’ve always heard (at least from my aunt) that you’re only supposed to clip one wing so it throws them off balance when they try to fly?

But then again they can’t escape predators.

Oh..there it is. .

 

[Pork Pie]

Welcome to BYC - you have some great advice and links already so I'll just say hello!
All the best

Pork Pie

 

[007Sean]

Howdy and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.

Happy to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!

Thanks for joining our community!

 

[Fancychooklady]

Don’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t work though. Start with one and if need be you may need to trim the other.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
As a chicken owner who had the same problem I can tell you a few things.
1) It's easy to clip wings.
2) For those that have told you that you only need to clip one wing to keep them from getting over your gates, they clearly didn't have the same breeds I have as the vast majority of mine cleared the gates with one wing clipped of first just the primaries and then also the secondaries. Clip them BOTH. You can go conservative and just do the primaries on both or primaries and secondaries on one wing/primaries only on the other or a radical primaries/secondaries on both wings. Do whatever you have to do to keep them from getting to the top of the gate.
3) I also had to build "gate top extensions" to raise my gate heights
4) I lost a girl to the neighbors dog during wing clipping trying not to take too much.
5) Now that everyone is used to being in their large 1/4-acre pen with lots of plantings and things to do, they don't challenge the gates any longer and will likely get to keep their new wing feathers after their molt this fall.
Good luck.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us