Keeping Them In!

Not sure if this has been covered already, but will ask anyway. We have a 30mtr chicken run and coop with fencing about 7-8ft high to keep predators at bay. The chooks (7 in total) all love roaming, but a few seem to get out, and are no doubt flying into nearby trees and then over the fence. I am not familiar with how to clip their wings, and would appreciate any advice to keep them in their run, or better yet, someone might be willing to come round and show me! Will trade for some fresh grown veges or eggs or whatever. Cheers, Michael

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  • How much of the long flight feathers does one trim off?
  • Hi Michael, To clip wings, extend one wing out on chicken while holding her tightly. Cut the long flight feathers with a sharp pair of sissors. This does not hurt them, it is like cutting your hair. Only do it on one wind as this will unbalance them. You need to do this each time the chicken moults. Good luck

    Janet
  • It's important to clip only one wing, because if you clip them both, they often continue to fly as if you hadn't bothered.
    my brother found that out the hard way. :-) Clipping a wing isn't painful, similar to trimming hair or nails.
    Tell us how you get on.
  • We have an orpington and 2 wyandote hens who struggle to fly to the top of the compost heap! May be the heavy breeds don't fly as well? Previously we had brown shavers who occasionally did manage to get onto the fence which is around 6 foot. One girl in particular used to go up there to crow - she was the dominant chook and we think she had taken on the role of rooster. We weren't too bothered about her flying up, but the crowing was a pain, especially at dawn in the summer! We read somewhere that clipping only one wing works best as they become unbalanced. A friend came round to do it; it took about 2 minutes. The hen stopped flying up, and funnily enough once she couldn't get on the fence she stopped crowing too. It was as if we had demoted her! So if anyone has a noisy chook - try clipping a wing!
  • We haven't cut our chickens wings back for a while maybe i can take some pictures i really don't need to as they cant get out of our run. cutting the wings back is really easy and shouldn't be an issue to fret over
  • Once you clip they wings, they may dig their way out, like mine do. Clever wee chooks they are! Good luck.
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