When is the best time to clip wings and how often on chicks?

[nao57]

So... any advise on when is the best time to clip wings and how often on chicks?

This is something I'm worried about.

I live in the city, so having them go into the neighbor's yard worries me almost more than predators.

Plus, the fences are around our backyard, are really high,...except for one of them that keeps the backyard separate from the garage and car repair area that has car chemicals etc.

So I'm worried about keeping them out of something not good for them.

The 3 chicks are about 7 weeks old and already can do a sort of 'flying jump' thing where they climb on top of anything resembling perches. And so far the perches are about the height of the one short fence.

Worrying about problems and any advise relating to wing clipping thanks.

 

[floppysquirrel04]

Can you put a few feet of chicken wire up around the short fence? You can start clipping wings now, just be careful.

 

[aart]

Worrying about problems and any advise relating to wing clipping thanks.

Risky clipping young birds wings as they often have blood feathers coming in due to the several juvenile molts they go thru.
Best to keep your birds confined to a secure run with a roof, mesh or solid.

 

[Ridgerunner]

They go through juvenile molts. So you have to clip the feathers after every molt. That gets tricky. As Aart mentioned they can have blood in them as they are growing. Also, they don't all fall out at the same time and grow back at the same time. They kind of do that sequentially. So you will have some feathers that have totally been replaced while others are still growing or maybe haven't even fallen out yet. If you work at it you might be able to do that one wing feather at a time. That's too hard for me to try but you may be willing to do it.

They can fly remarkably well if they want to. The trick is to stop them from wanting to. They are not likely to launch and fly over your fences, especially if they can't see through them. Their brain doesn't normally seem to work that way. You can always get that weird one or they can learn, but what they tend to do is fly up to the top of the fence to perch. Once they are up there who knows which side they will hop down on?

If the top of your fence does not give them a good place to perch they should not want to fly up there. What I suggest, especially on your short fence, is to take some wire and attach it to the top of your fence. The won't want to land on that. Chicken wire might be stiff enough, depends n the gauge, but attach the wire at the very top of the fence and again maybe a foot lower. The stiffness should cause it to stand up a foot or so above that short fence. If it is stiff enough you can go higher. As log as you don't choose a wire that looks thick enough for them to land on it should solve your problem.