trying to fly already?

[bibliophile birds]

my chicks are barely 1.5 weeks old and i swear they are already planning on flying out of the brooder. they've got hardly and feathers but they are catching some wind. granted, they only make it over the feed trough, but you wouldn't think they could do anything with so few feathers.

at what age do i really need to be concerned or start thinking about clipping wings?

 

[Svarthona]

Mine start to fly like sparrows with about 2 weeks, when their wings are mostly feathered. So it may be time to make the brooder escape-proof or to give them more room to hop and fly in a space with a heat lamp.
At two weeks they don´t stay under the hen all the time either

so they don´t need steady brooder conditions all the time. Mine usually go for their first outside walks with the hen when they are 2 weeks old, even when it´s freezing.

EDIT: Sorry forgot to say something about clipping wings. I don´t do that, but I´m almost certain that it´s too early to clip them now.

 

[KnitswithChickens]

My brooder was a large plastic tote. I had to improvise a wire top after two weeks because one of the chicks was sitting on the rim one morning!!

 

[bibliophile birds]

Svarthöna :

Sorry forgot to say something about clipping wings. I don´t do that, but I´m almost certain that it´s too early to clip them now.

i don't particularly plan on doing it either. i'd rather just leave them able to fly. but i will do it if i think it's going to keep them safer. they are going out to pasture when they are feathered and there is no way i can put a fly net on an area that size, so i'll just have to see how they do.​

 

[bigoakhunter]

Wait till you move them to coop and/or run.... mine at about 3 to 3 1/2 weeks would actually fly off the gang plank from poop door and land out in the run. It was so cool.

 

[mediazeal]

why do you want to clip their wings? (I hear you only clip one on each bird by the way or they can still fly, it's about unbalancing them)
I have 6 foot fence around my yard and they never give it a thought to try to go over it
they usually only fly about 1 foot off the ground to race to the other side of the yard or as they burst out of the coop to the yard.

good luck

 

[gryeyes]

I have three 2.5 - 3 week old chicks and yes, they can fly. WOW. It's only to the top of the brooder (54 gal Rubbermaid bin), and only one of them does it regularly right now. She flies up there whenever I come into the bathroom (only safe place to keep the brooder). She'll turn around, then sidle along the top of the bin until she's about six inches away from me, and turn her head back and forth to look at me from each side. After 3 or 4 minutes, she's satisfied and will sidle back down to the end of the bin to jump back into it.

One of the others has flown/jumped up there, but it was after a fly..... she wobbled on the edge for a few seconds, then turned around and jumped back in.

I know that one of these days I'll discover a bathroom full of chickens. I added four 3 day old chicks this past Friday.

I also handle all the chicks a couple of times a day, trying to get them used to me. They don't startle when I come into the bathroom any more, but they DO NOT like to be picked up. I find it interesting that Rebecca (the Plymouth Barred that is the flyer right now) seems to fly up to check me out. The last time, she vaulted to the top of the waterer and launched from it.

I don't want to cover the bin with screen, but neither do I want to find chilled chicks outside of it!