To clip or not to clip

[surgerynut]

I have a new chicken coop with 3 month old chickens which are flying now. My concern is they are flying over the 7 foot fence and I have dogs waiting on the other side, which I don't trust unless I'm standing right next to them. So far a few have gotten out without incident but I'm worried. Should I clip their wings so they can't fly over the fence while at the same time, taking away their main means of escape. What to do, what to do???

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Is their also any possibility of hawks in your area? You could put some sort of avian netting over the enclosure and protect them from both threats at once.

BTW, cute avatar pic!

 

[BellevueOmlet]

I like scratch'n'peck's idea. You can always clip their wings and see how it goes. It does not hurt them and they will grow back.

 

[surgerynut]

I think the enclosure would be too large to cover. I wanted to give them lots of room to run so the fenced area is around 1000 square feet.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Oh like 100x100 ft. It is not impossible to cover it. We have covered aviaries that large to keep hawks out and wood ducks in, but yes it is expensive and kind of a pain to keep wholes from developing.

That does make clipping their flight feathers an easier option. I haven't done it myself. You cut them on one side to make them unbalanced. If you search picture, clip flight feathers, maybe someone has a description with photos.

 

[AccentOnHakes]

Actually, 100ft x 100ft is 10,000square feet.

I would just go with clipping their wings. We just clipped the wings of ours after they started flying on top of the coop. They can still fly around, just not as high.

 

[surgerynut]

Thanks everyone for the thoughts. I believe I'm going to try clipping.