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skodabud

Not clipping wings as fox defence???

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Hi there

I am new to forum, and was fairly new to chickens,and like many others my girls (Lilly and Ella) recently got taken by foxes, they were free ranging.

Was wondering if there had been any advantages in not clipping feathers, would they have got away? Would they really fly away if we hadnt clipped feathers?We are definately not going to be put off and will prob buy an extension to run, but what do other members think, is it really necessary to clip wings, I cant imagine they would be able to fly far anyway, just enough to get away from fox????

Thanks for any advice

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I had 2 girls taken by a fox last night and did wonder if we hadn't clipped their wings whether they'd have got away or at least it would have given them a bit more chance so I could have got to them and scared the fox away. Although given the brazeness (is that a word?) of the fox i doubt it would have dropped the chicken even if I had have run out.

 

It seems daft that we had their wings clipped (it was done for us by the omlet delivery driver) and let them free range as I thought this was best for them and would allow them to stay in our garden safely and ultimately it was this that led them into danger.

 

Sorry to hear of your loss. Have you got new girls yet?

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One of our omlet girls was quite flighty and even clipping her wing as recommended by Omlet didn't keep her grounded. She could still fly up onto a 6ft fence and fly across the garden at knee height to get to the treats first. We had to cut all the long flight feathers on one wing to keep her grounded.

 

We got omlet to clip their wings when they arrived as we have a main road at the end of the garden and couldn't risk them getting out.

 

We've been lucky so far and not had a visit from the fox but as 4 of the girls don't try to fly so I'll probably leave their wings unclipped when the feathers grow back. The other one might have to be clipped again for her own safety.

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Not clipping wings can give hens a fighting chance. But it is still likely that the fox will win and it's not a substitute for being careful and cautious.

 

None of my chooks have their wings clipped and I know that some of the lighter ones can get quite high up in the trees.

 

Our heaviest birds can only really get just a couple of feet off the ground.

 

I think the maximum flight time ever recorded for a chicken was something like 12 or 13 seconds, so they are not likely to get far, but they may be able to get far enough out of harms way...

 

But obviously if you need to try and stop them flying over a 6ft fence (or similar) then you would need to clip 1 wing to throw them off balance and hope they don't make it over...

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