Chicken wing clipping?

[Boots]

mmm..ok. What about de-spurring then?

[Hillbilly]

......mmm I thought the theory was only to clip one wing as it was the imbalance that made it difficult for the chicken to fly?....I could be wrong...but I'm pretty sure that's the theory........

kind thoughts
Deb

I think that is the theory Deb yes, but watching Flat, its more an 'assisted jump' than flight so we reckoned on them having enough lift with one 'good' wing to clear the fence (standard width chicken wire). Our chicken avionics aren't that hot and we could be granting them a lot more than they actually have but erred on the side of caution and snipped both. AFAIAA it doesn;t cause them any problems and our three are still popping the eggs out.

Stonehead: I read my post again and it sounds very standoffish. I do aologise I was typing one handed with a wriggly 5 month old on my knee - a situation which doesn't lend to a considered reply on here Anyway, yes good advice for beginners.

[Stonehead]

Stonehead: I read my post again and it sounds very standoffish. I do aologise I was typing one handed with a wriggly 5 month old on my knee - a situation which doesn't lend to a considered reply on here Anyway, yes good advice for beginners.

Nae bother! I think you're reading too much into it as I was trying to reply to you in one sense, while also putting more info for others in another sense.

Anyway, I'm just working out my list of what's needed for the party and will hopefully email it around this afternoon or early evening.

Stonehead

[moonwolf]

Hi, I'm new here. Have been raising chickens since I was a little girl. I probably shouldn't ask this but, why don't you just put some chicken wire over the top of the chicken pen? I don't know how big it is...My pen has chicken wire on all sides and has a door to open to get in to clean the hutch and so forth. Just a suggestion. Nice to meet everyone on here. This is a great site:).


The Goddess Bless and Protect You,
MoonWolf

[theabsinthefairy]

We have had to clip some of ours as they were persistent houdinis and the rest just stay in and don't bother, and that's with 2 metre fencing on three sides topped with red and white bunting to deter them, and a thick set of fir trees and electric sheep fencing on the fourth side.


I tend to just grab the naughty ones when they are in full eating frenzy in the garden, turn them over onto their backs, and spread a wing out (just the one side) - then bend back the flight feathers I want to cut, the 'dead' ones sort of snap and the 'live' ones won't bend readily - so it is easy to identify and prevent any blood loss. I did have a feather bleed on one of our flighty ducks and found that pinching the quill end shut for a couple of minutes was enough for coagulation, and it scabbed up in a couple of minutes.

We also have a flock of guinea fowl, which were really flighty initially and very keen to roost in the trees, but we persisted in rounding them up at night, but one night we could not find one of the blasted birds, so left the search, but were lucky enough to recover it in the morning when the calls of its flock bought it home, but something had taken its wing off almost cleanly in half, a bit of antiseptic and it was OK, but obviously could not fly and that seemed to settle all of them down and they all stuck to the gorund (and a night time closure) after that.


That is a very full account Stonehead and very welcome for newbies. Thank you for taking the time to write that up.

Monika

[Stonehead]

:Have been raising chickens since I was a little girl. I probably shouldn't ask this but, why don't you just put some chicken wire over the top of the chicken pen?

Snow. Our run is 20m by 20m and we have used netting over the top to keep wild birds out, particularly goshawks. However, when we get wet, sticky snow it blocks the netting up, more snow falls on top, and the whole thing collapses under the weight of tonnes of snow. And that's even with braced 4x4s sunk three feet into the ground to hold the net up. The posts held, but the ground didn't—the soil was rippled up to six feet away from the posts.

Also, our chickens actually free range most of the year but stay in the run when predators are at their most hungry/most dangerous—mainly winter to early spring. We have weasels, pine martens, stoats, foxes, sparrowhawks, goshawks, and crows to worry about.