When should we clip wings on our poults?

[Dire Wolf]

So, we have 10 6-8ish week old turkeys, we've given up on keeping them in the pen we made for them. We haven't had any predator issues at all (knock on wood) . But the peepers ( as we call them) are getting a little too far away from the older birds and the field for the birds.The dog will very gently herd them back into the field if we are herding them back, but DH watched one of them fly up over our coop (8 ft tall) and now he wants to clip their wings. I tend to agree that for their safety we should, but how young is too young to clip wings? I'd hate to hurt them.

 

[DuckCommander]

Sorry I have no answer for you, but new to turkeys and didn't know a thing about wing clipping, so waiting to hear the answers!

 

[SIMZ]

This is our first year with turkeys and we have the same problem. I clipped their wing feathers about a week ago and it helped for about a week. lol Now they're back to flying right over the fence and unto the coop.

So, I don't think yours are too young. You won't hurt them as long as it's just the feather ends that you cut. I'd recommend the youtube video I watched, but I must not have done it correctly!

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Open the wing so you can see they're primary and secondary feathers. If the primary feathers don't have blood in the shafts, then your good. Only cut one wing. If you want to be mean (I consider it mean since it seems like it hurts, Lol) then if you pull all the primary (yes pull) and secondary they'll be completely flightless. But just cut the primary and secondary feathers it'll work until those feathers fall out and they grow new ones. Best of luck!

 

[Dire Wolf]

I don't think I could pull the feathers. That sounds painful and I'm into humane meat raising practices. (Hence the reason I haven't beaten my goat with a large stick yet. lol) We've watched videos on how to do this, they're just so tiny. I'm kinda worried about doing it. I'm going to find some videos on clipping the smaller wings. I really like my turkeys. My chickens are neat and I love the eggs, but the turkeys are by far my favorite of the two. The chirping babies sound so sweet!

 

[Dire Wolf]

Sorry I have no answer for you, but new to turkeys and didn't know a thing about wing clipping, so waiting to hear the answers!

All the videos I saw made it look really easy. I haven't had to do it yet. We're going to wait until night time when they're sleepy and clip wings then. Hopefully it'll make our lives easier. I recommend watching the videos. It put my mind at ease to know that wing clipping on a turkey is only one wing, unlike the indoor birds my mom raised when I was a child. My mom (the only person I know who's raised several breeds of turkeys) says that they need to be handled frequently when young so as to make wing clipping easier. The problem I have is that we free range everything, so its rather difficult to catch them to handle them. My 6 year old would be overjoyed if we could handle them regularly. lol

 

[BMHarness]

As someone mentioned before just watch for blood feathers (feathers growing with a vein in them) and you will be fine. Look on the underside of the wing and stear clear of any that are purple colored. We clip ours shortly after they start flying to keep them in the brooder and don't have any problems. We clip the right wing of each one. Just like cutting hair!

 

[Dire Wolf]

After watching them outside for the last few days, we've decided to wait until they're too big to fit through the fencing before clipping their wings. The neighbor has a dog that could hurt them, so we want them to have every chance to get home safely if they're out and about. They aren't going far though, the older ones can't leave the field. Thanks for all of the input. I will remember to watch our for the blood feathers.