Trimming some wings

[silkypie]

For some reason my ladies like you fly up to our fence that is around the perimeter, then they tend to fly down on the ground. I don't mind this, but when I look at them out the window they are standing at the fence trying to get back in with the other who haven't flown the coop. I don't get why they don't just fly over the fence like they did the first time.

Anyway... to try to alleviate this from happening everyday we have decided to clip their wings. Unfortunately, we are not sure which wings to cut so they can't fly. I know they like to get up on the fence and check out what we are doing but I am afraid they will get attacked if they happen to go farther away from our fence line.

Please help if you can!

EDIT: Maybe someone can point me towards some diagrams that could show me...

THANK YOU!

 

[faykokoWV]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-wingclipping.html

great one right here on this site!

 

[mandelyn]

Wow, that was so useful! I was just going to ask this question when I saw the thread. I want to let the new ones roam the back yard tomorrow, but wanted to make sure they couldn't fly over the fence. (6 ft)

Don't trust them to stay around, the neighbors have chickens too. But I was going to sit and watch them for awhile, and since I don't know how easy they'll be to catch, wanted to clip the wings to prevent escape. So then I'm only chasing them around the yard, and not the whole neighborhood. LOL

 

[silkypie]

Quote:
I understand completely! Mine were fine in the beginning, they didn't fly off too often but now they like to perch on our fence. The silly little things don't know how to get back in the fence either

 

[mandelyn]

Well I did it tonight, successfully! I used to own parrots, but I always took them in to have it done, parrots get quite cranky when you they know what your intentions are.

Chickens? Not at all! It was so easy, took 2 seconds a wing. I even got artsy and curved it the way the remaining wings went, so when they flapped, it looked nice.

Then I went ahead and walked around the back yard with the chickens testing it out. They proved to be pretty tame with the wing clipping. They even stayed with me like I was flock leader! And I just got them this morning, full feather adults, hatched this year, but all grown up.

Didn't seem needed to clip the wings with how they acted, but it's nice to know how dang easy it was.

 

[silkypie]

Quote:

I had to ask because my DH clipped the wrong wings

 

[GaNewChick]

Can anything get in your fence...I kinda see it like putting a declawed cat outside. Their defense tools are missing.

 

[mandelyn]

I could see how that's possible, the flight feathers you sort of have to pull out from under the other feathers, since they're on that folded part that gets tucked in.

I used a finger to seperate the flight feathers a bit more, so that I didn't accidently cut any of the shorter ones. But the difference in feather length was prolly a good 2-3 inches.

Note: Don't go too short, is what I learned from the parrot people years ago. There's blood through the lower portion, so where the quill starts to go thicker you don't want to cut that. To be safe I just made them even with the other feathers slanting out a little towards the tips, going for a "natural" look.

 

[HBuehler]

We have to keep all of our light chickens clipped or they will get out.Our 8 week old Andy's are already clearing the 6' fences and then we play the catch a chick game and it's not fun

They can still fly with a wing clipped just not as high.Mine just accept it but we do pick up all of our chickens every week so it's just routine.