Hi y'all. If we do clip our girls wings, how high can they fly? Our nest boxes are 2-5 feet off the ground (we have them stacked). We are trying to prevent them from flying over a 4 foot high fence otherwise we wouldn't be doing this.
If they can "hop" up to the highest nest box they will be able to get over or ontop of a 4 ft high fence. Wing clipping also leaves them more vulnerable to predators that will dig under or come over the fence. Dogs , cats, etc... The fence to my chicken run is 6 ft high. I have it covered...mainly to try to keep predators out. Along the one fenceline of the run I have what I refer to as my silkie condo (silkies can't stand it but the other chickens love it go figure..lol) . Anyway the upper level of the condo is just over 5 ft high, I have to stand on my toes to open it and look inside, but my wyandottes absolutely LOVE to perch ontop of it every single day. It also wreaks havoc with my netting. Julie
I have heard it said that smaller chickens, like bantams and breeds a little closer to wild like Araucanas can fly much much better than heavy breeds. My standard Cochins, speaking from their perch in the 10' high barn rafters, tell me that this is a total lie and they will fly wherever they darn well please, no matter what I do to their wings. If they really want to fly over a fence, they will figure it out, clipped wings or no. If you don't want them to fly over the fence, your best option is to enclose their run completely.
My kids are almost 3 months old and they can flap about 3 feet up after clipping their wings. Not sure how high they'll go when they're full grown. I have perches in their coop that allow them to hop into the nesting boxes.
When I first got my chickens, the plan was to let them have the run of the entire backyard, which is fenced in with 4' chainlink. After posting here and getting lots of responses on this, I decided that even clipping their wings would not be enough to ensure they stayed in MY yard and didn't go over the fence. I made the decision to partition off part of the yard and cover it, and am really glad I did. The girls can easily fly up into the netting over the top, so could effortlessly clear the 4' fence if it weren't covered. I've heard too many comments here on how clipping the wings did not keep them from flying over fences...