Wing Clipping and Beak Trimming Questions!

[Nimby Chickens]

I live in a place where having chickens is dangling between being legal and not. There are no specific ordinances against it, but if I call code enforcement I get different answers. So to be safe, I am putting a 6 foot privacy fence around my whole back yard, which is 3/4th an acre. Fiancee is building a coop with a small run but I do plan on free-ranging them in part of my back yard (I am fencing off the vegetable garden!) during the day.

To make them NOT fly over the fence and bug the neighbors, I'd like to wing clip them - but I do not know how. I have never even had a parakeet before! Never had to clip a bird's wings and do not know how to do it.

Does it hurt them at all? I know it would probably hurt the chance of escape from a ground predator - but I do have 2 australian shepherds that I would trust to protect them, especially Cooper, who LOVES my cats, squirrels, and puppy. He's the peacekeeper here.

Also, what say you on beak trimming? Do they need it or is it a show thing?

What do you guys suggest? Thanks for looking!

 

[CowgirlPenny]

I can only speak to the wing clipping. It's the first 10 feathers (the longest) on one wing, not both

 

[Fred's Hens]

Household shears. It is like clipping finger nails or more like a hair cut. You're not hitting flesh, bone or anything. Just trimming the outer feathers. It does the job and I think you are being responsible to do it.

I dislike beak cutting. It does not grow back. It is done in the industry hens because they are over crowded and done to prevent pecking. I never, ever, trim beaks.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Wing trimming is fairly easy, although on a bird as large as an adult standard chicken it is probably best to have two people, one to hold and one to clip. Trimming the feathers does not hurt at all unless you accidentally hit a blood feather. The standard method is to chop the primaries on one wing. Personally I do not like this method as it leaves sharp, somewhat jagged feather shafts that can irritate the bird. It is also a tad risky because most people do it blindly and it is easy to accidentally cut a blood feather this way. I prefer to cut each individual feather at the base of the shaft and I prefer to do both wings. By cutting each feather shaft individually (I use dog nail clippers, but any good sharp scissor would work too) you eliminate the risk of accidentally cutting a blood feather because you will be looking ate each and every feather before you cut it. It is impossible to cut a blood feather using this method unless you just aren't paying any attention. I prefer to clip both wings because clipping one wing removes the bird's ability to fly by causing it to be unbalanced when it tries. Clipping both wings reduces the chance of the bird causing injury to itself by crashing haphazardly into things if it panics and attempts to fly away from danger (real or perceived). Clipping the primary flight feathers removes the lift that a bird needs for flight, so there is no reason not to trim both wings and trimming both wings will give the bird better control when they do fail at their attempt to fly.

http://exoticpetvet.net/avian/clip.html
This article has pictures that show both the "old fashioned" way and the way I described to trim feathers. It's on a cockatiel, but the concept is the same for chickens, the feathers are just bigger is all.

http://avianpets.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/DSC_0181.jpg
This is a pretty good picture of a blood feather on a parrot's wing. You can see the keratin sheath where the blood supply still is. If you saw a feather like this when trimming wings, it would be ok to clip that feather above the whitish sheath, as the blood has receded from the part of the shaft that has broken free of the keratin sheath and it is just like any other feather.

Beak trimming is not necessary unless you have a bird who's beak does not line up properly. Chickens will keep their beaks trimmed to the proper length on their own through pecking at the ground and scraping their beaks against the ground, feeders, sticks, etc to get food off their face. If you had a bird with a misaligned beak (such as a cross-beak), then you might have to trim the beak because the bird would not be able to keep it the proper shape on it's own and the beak may grow long enough to interfere with the bird's ability to eat. I have to trim the beak on my cross-beak hen about once every 3-4 weeks because her upper beak and lower beak don't even come close to lining up. For this I have my husband hold her and I grind the beak back using a dremmel. Nail trimmers are not recommended for trimming beaks because they can cause the beak to splinter or crack, which could potentially cause even more issues.

Buffy, my cross beak hen right after a beak trim. If you look very closely at the right side of her lower beak you can see a hint of pink where I dremmeled a tiny bit too much and went into living tissue. The big advantage of a dremmel is that it spins quickly enough to cauterize most bleeding if you do accidentally go too far.

 

[Nimby Chickens]

Thank you all very much for the information - very enlightening!

So I would cut the first 5 primaries on each wing for the 'new' method? Or more? I do like the idea better of having a balanced, if still flightless, chicken. Crashing into things is never pleasant! I'll need to get one of those clippers.

That beak is too weird!

How does that happen? Deformity or injury? Does your hen eat normally of do you need to feed her in a special way?

If they keep their own beaks trimmed, I won't worry about it!

 

[edithbunker]

From my experience, the chickens wings do not need to be clipped. Mine are free range and never try to fly over fences or anything of that nature. I wouldnt debeak them either, I just bought one 6 month old that was debeaked and it's awful, she can't even eat right. I would of never bought her if I knew she was debeaked. I found out when I got her home..

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

With a 6 foot high privacy fence, you really shouldn't need to clip your chickens wings; however, here is a description of how to do it anyway: http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2010/03/24/clipping-chicken-wings-flight-feathers/

As far as debeaking, I would never do it - the birds can't eat and forage the way nature intended if you mess with there beaks.

 

[Frizzy Chicks]

Ok, so from what I understand you are to cut the primary flight feathers with dog/cat nail clippers and the whole feather. What I have a question about is how far is the whole feather without going to far? I have yet to see a picture or completely understand how far down the feather I cut.

Is this the same for ducks?

 

[True Grit]

I have a 4 ft fence and they've never tried to fly over it so really, you may not need to clip wings. Beaks, no.

 

[piercesdesigns]

I am too new to post links or pics, but google "wing clipping chickens" and look at the images. There is a very good diagram.

I have parrots so for me it is second nature.