To clip or not to clip

[corriemartin]

I recently moved my 11 chickens from a permanent coop and yard (which they could fly to the top of the fence and out of) into a spacious chicken tractor which (once the wheels are installed) I can move daily. After they have learned that this new place is home, I would like to put up electro-net fencing around it to allow them to free-range during the day (like in the unplanted half of the garden).

My question is--should I clip their wings before letting them out? They are very much in the habit of flying, and flying up into a tree probably saved the lives of a majority of them when a rogue neighborhood dog killed five of them last week (thus the move to new quarters). I've talked to neighbors who haven't, and they did say that had a few chickens who did fly out, but then they just put them back. But this seems like a recipe for disaster. What if they ALL fly out? And I'm not sure that I could get them back in. I'd have to turn off the fence, which might give another chicken a chance to touch it and not get a shock, and thus have an idea in their little brains that this was not a formidable barrier. But clipping the wings of 11 chickens seems daunting too. Will it impede their ability to get up on their roosts?

Any advice would be most welcome!

 

[Callender Girl]

This is a tough one. I let my chickens free range during the day, and recently, some have figured out how to escape into the goat pasture -- where they can easily pass through the cattle panels to the south and wander through a soybean field.

Despite me repeatedly returning them to the yard, one of the Easter eggers disappeared. And for 24 hours, I beat myself up for not taking better care of her. I'd heard coyotes singing and I was sure she was a goner. Then, she reappeared just as suddenly and now has no interest in the pasture. I immediately ran chicken wire all along the bottom of the pasture fence so no one would slip through.

Her EE sister ran the fence for days, then simply flew up to a fence brace and used it to hop over the fence. Clipping their wings would prevent that, but it would also make them vulnerable to predators that might sneak into the yard. So, I didn't clip, worry more and check outside ALL the time.

Good luck finding your right answer.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This i a hard one because there is no one correct answer. Two different people could do the same thing and get two different results.

I have never clipped wings so no experience with that. You can get a lot of different opinions on here about how effective that is, how to clip them, and whether to do one or both wings. I try to stay out of those debates but encourage people to try things for themselves and base their actions on what they see, not what some stranger over the internet like me says they will see.

I use electric netting from Premiere1. The electricity is not what keeps them in, baby chicks can walk right through it without getting shocked. What keeps them in is the size of the holes in the netting. For something to get shocked they have to touch a hot wire and something grounded at the same time with body parts tat are not insulated.. Feathers provide insulation so that leaves, feet, combs and wattles, and beaks as areas that can conduct electricity.

With electric netting all horizontal wires except the bottom one are your hot wires. The soil is your ground. When a young chick goes through it hops up off the soil and doesn't feel a thing. When a chicken is standing on the ground and touches a hot wire with it's comb. wattles, or beak it will get shocked. The chicken jumps back and up, squawks, and goes back to foraging. They do eventually learn to not peck around the netting.

My netting is 4' high. My roosts are 5' high. They would have no problems at all flying over the netting if they want to. Typically mine don't but there are exceptions I'll get to. As you mentioned they will fly up to a top rail to perch and then might hop down on the wrong side. Electric netting does not have a top rail for them to land on so that doesn't happen. One time a hen did get out. As I was herding her toward a way in, she easily flew over the netting. Cleared it with a lot of room to spare. They can fly over it if they want to.

When I have several cockerels in there, I sometimes find one that is out. When they have their fights one can get trapped against the fence and goes vertical to try to get away. Sometimes they land outside and do not know to fly back in. They hang around the netting and want back in, they just don't know how to do that. I think that's what happened to that hen that got out, she was probably trying to get away from an amorous rooster.

I've found two things that help with that. Don't have sharp corners where it is easy for them to get trapped. A 90 degree corner isn't bad but don't go any sharper than that. One time I set the netting up to make a narrow pathway from the coop to a new area, maybe 10' wide. I was finding three cockerels a day out. They did not have enough room to pass each other without starting a fight. When I reconfigured it to flatten corners and eliminated that tight spot escapees were pretty rare. A big wide area is better than a long skinny one.

Yours may have learned to fly out. A change of fencing type may or may not change that. If you house them in that tractor only for a few days they should consider that as home and maybe not roam too far if they do get out. If only one or two gets out they will probably hang close to stay near their buddies. They should want to go back to bed in that tractor at night. If you clip their wings and they can't get to the nests or roosts you may need ramps, which will increase the tractor weight.

Good luck with it.

 

[corriemartin]

This i a hard one because there is no one correct answer. Two different people could do the same thing and get two different results.

I have never clipped wings so no experience with that. You can get a lot of different opinions on here about how effective that is, how to clip them, and whether to do one or both wings. I try to stay out of those debates but encourage people to try things for themselves and base their actions on what they see, not what some stranger over the internet like me says they will see.

I use electric netting from Premiere1. The electricity is not what keeps them in, baby chicks can walk right through it without getting shocked. What keeps them in is the size of the holes in the netting. For something to get shocked they have to touch a hot wire and something grounded at the same time with body parts tat are not insulated.. Feathers provide insulation so that leaves, feet, combs and wattles, and beaks as areas that can conduct electricity.

With electric netting all horizontal wires except the bottom one are your hot wires. The soil is your ground. When a young chick goes through it hops up off the soil and doesn't feel a thing. When a chicken is standing on the ground and touches a hot wire with it's comb. wattles, or beak it will get shocked. The chicken jumps back and up, squawks, and goes back to foraging. They do eventually learn to not peck around the netting.

My netting is 4' high. My roosts are 5' high. They would have no problems at all flying over the netting if they want to. Typically mine don't but there are exceptions I'll get to. As you mentioned they will fly up to a top rail to perch and then might hop down on the wrong side. Electric netting does not have a top rail for them to land on so that doesn't happen. One time a hen did get out. As I was herding her toward a way in, she easily flew over the netting. Cleared it with a lot of room to spare. They can fly over it if they want to.

When I have several cockerels in there, I sometimes find one that is out. When they have their fights one can get trapped against the fence and goes vertical to try to get away. Sometimes they land outside and do not know to fly back in. They hang around the netting and want back in, they just don't know how to do that. I think that's what happened to that hen that got out, she was probably trying to get away from an amorous rooster.

I've found two things that help with that. Don't have sharp corners where it is easy for them to get trapped. A 90 degree corner isn't bad but don't go any sharper than that. One time I set the netting up to make a narrow pathway from the coop to a new area, maybe 10' wide. I was finding three cockerels a day out. They did not have enough room to pass each other without starting a fight. When I reconfigured it to flatten cor. ners and eliminated that tight spot escapees were pretty rare. A big wide area is better than a long skinny one.

Yours may have learned to fly out. A change of fencing type may or may not change that. If you house them in that tractor only for a few days they should consider that as home and maybe not roam too far if they do get out. If only one or two gets out they will probably hang close to stay near their buddies. They should want to go back to bed in that tractor at night. If you clip their wings and they can't get to the nests or roosts you may need ramps, which will increase the tractor weight.

Good luck with it.

Thank you for this information. Lots to think about. My inclination toward clipping (one side, not both) was because of their habit of flying out. They're pretty big, started laying two days ago, and the netting is very close at the bottom, so they won't be able to walk out. It's the flying over. No cockerels anymore.

But I'm hoping that the net will keep predators out during the day, and they'll be locked up at night. Once school starts again, I won't be able to be checking on them all day long, so I need to be able to leave them be. It could be IN the tractor, and moving it every day, but we have both space and the netting (from Premier1), so I'd really like for them to have a bit of a broader range.

I suppose I could try them out first without clipping and see what happens.....

 

[corriemartin]

This is a tough one. I let my chickens free range during the day, and recently, some have figured out how to escape into the goat pasture -- where they can easily pass through the cattle panels to the south and wander through a soybean field.

Despite me repeatedly returning them to the yard, one of the Easter eggers disappeared. And for 24 hours, I beat myself up for not taking better care of her. I'd heard coyotes singing and I was sure she was a goner. Then, she reappeared just as suddenly and now has no interest in the pasture. I immediately ran chicken wire all along the bottom of the pasture fence so no one would slip through.

Her EE sister ran the fence for days, then simply flew up to a fence brace and used it to hop over the fence. Clipping their wings would prevent that, but it would also make them vulnerable to predators that might sneak into the yard. So, I didn't clip, worry more and check outside ALL the time.

Good luck finding your right answer.

This is exactly my dilemma. I think, though, (I hope!) that the electric fence will keep predators out. There are no trees out in the pasture where this will be for them to fly into, so flying won't help so much. I hate to do it, but if the fence is what will keep them safe, then they need to actually stay inside it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If it is set up right electric netting is extremely effective against anything ground based. If something tries digging under it they tend to immediately hit it with their nose. They are gone. Nothing will try to walk through it. A running deer or something like that may knock it down (I had that happen to one corner) but nothing is going to go through it. A climbing predator will touch it with its front feet with its back feet on the ground. Zap! Some critters like coyotes or some dogs could easily jump over it but they don't. They explore it with their nose first. Zap! When zapped they usually don't try it again. I had a hard-headed stubborn dog that tried it a second time. She never tried it a third. Some people bait it. Put peanut butter on a hot wire to get then to sniff or lick it. Zap! Lesson learned.

The only thing the netting isn't effective against is birds of prey. Hawks, eagles, or owls can still get a chicken. Some people have big problems with those, I never did. Some of those migrate through so you may only have a problem as they are passing through. Others have a year around problem. I have no idea how birds of prey will affect you, it at all.

 

[corriemartin]

If it is set up right electric netting is extremely effective against anything ground based. If something tries digging under it they tend to immediately hit it with their nose. They are gone. Nothing will try to walk through it. A running deer or something like that may knock it down (I had that happen to one corner) but nothing is going to go through it. A climbing predator will touch it with its front feet with its back feet on the ground. Zap! Some critters like coyotes or some dogs could easily jump over it but they don't. They explore it with their nose first. Zap! When zapped they usually don't try it again. I had a hard-headed stubborn dog that tried it a second time. She never tried it a third. Some people bait it. Put peanut butter on a hot wire to get then to sniff or lick it. Zap! Lesson learned.

The only thing the netting isn't effective against is birds of prey. Hawks, eagles, or owls can still get a chicken. Some people have big problems with those, I never did. Some of those migrate through so you may only have a problem as they are passing through. Others have a year around problem. I have no idea how birds of prey will affect you, it at all.

Thanks! (We do have a fair number of red-tailed hawks around, but neighbors have said that they only get young chickens, and don't touch the full-sized ones.)