4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[house-elf]

Hi,

 

I am looking into keeping some chooks and have already picked up lots of great advice from this site - however I would like to know how necessary it is to wing clip ?

 

My reason is that I am a vet nurse and am against it for obvious reasons and the practice I work for will not do - although I am going to check with them as regards chickens - the people that ask for it where I work is for their parrots etc...

 

My fence is propably about 4-4.5ft high on one side and well over 6 foot on the other side.

 

Do I look for chickens that don't fly well ? Or can they not get enough lift to get over my smaller fence?

 

Any help would be appriciated, thank you...

 

Mother Hen to be !

[katieadams]

We haven't clipped ours just because I avoid anything unnatural and unnecessary so we decided to see how it goes with the plan to do it if we needed to. So far they've only made one attempt at flying high and it got nowhere! They do have a little fly around the garden sometimes but only at about 2 or 3 feet high. Our fence is 6' all round so I can't see them ever getting anywhere near over that. We've only had them 6 weeks so I suppose there's time yet for them to change our minds!!

[Old Speckled Hen]

Hi,

 

I am looking into keeping some chooks and have already picked up lots of great advice from this site - however I would like to know how necessary it is to wing clip ?

 

My reason is that I am a vet nurse and am against it for obvious reasons and the practice I work for will not do - although I am going to check with them as regards chickens - the people that ask for it where I work is for their parrots etc...

 

My fence is propably about 4-4.5ft high on one side and well over 6 foot on the other side.

 

Do I look for chickens that don't fly well ? Or can they not get enough lift to get over my smaller fence?

 

Any help would be appriciated, thank you...

 

Mother Hen to be !

 

Wing clipping doesn't hurt. All it involves is shortening some of the flight feathers on one wing, by cutting them back by about half. You can even leave the longest primary alone so that the wing when folded looks perfectly normal. This unbalances the chook who then can't flap higher than two feet or so.

Unclipped my lot can get higher than six feet.

[shibby69]

Unclipped, most of mine can gain alot of height when they flap about, and seem to get higher jumping too. I'd not clipped some of my birds - i hadn't even thought about it to be honest, some came clipped and some didn't - and one of the non clipped girls got herself over a 6ft fence and came face to face with a staffie. She was fine, it didn't know what to do with her and i got her back virtually unscathed BUT since then i've clipped all the girls' wings, just in case they ever get elsewhere and meet a dog or other animal that next time reacts with intent and causes damage.

[..lay a little egg for me]

I have 3 with clipped wings and 1 without (they came that way), in an area protected by electric netting. Mine don't seem to know what their wings are for . They jump to about knee height but have never ventured higher than that. Their area includes lots of trees with relatively low branches but they've never considered trying to get up to them. They don't even get to the top of their coop! The one without a clipped wing doesn't fare any better than the ones with clipped wings.

 

I think that, like everything else in chicken world, a lot depends on individual personalities.

 

I wouldn't have any concerns about clipping their wings if it was needed as it is just like trimming an animal's hair or toe nails as no living tissue is being cut. It is not like docking a tail.

[Budgies]

When my two hens arrived the lovely man from Omlet who delivered them showed us how to clip their wings. When Chutney had a full moult 18 months later all her feathers re-grew.

 

We didn't then clip her again. She could easily get to 4-5 feet in height and would regularly fly up to perch on a table or the back of a wooden bench. Luckily none of it could be used as a launch pad to get herself over the fence and next door!

 

As everyone else has said, you don't cut into the pulp at all, so it actually doesn't hurt them any more than it hurts us having our hair cut.

 

I'm editing this post to add that the smaller the chook, the higher they fly!!

Edited May 20, 2009 by Guest

[katieadams]

the practice I work for will not do - although I am going to check with them as regards chickens - the people that ask for it where I work is for their parrots etc...

 

I'll be interested to hear what they say at work - I never thought there was any problem with it, maybe parrots etc need the exercise of flying Never thought there was any cruelty clipping wings, for chickens anyway. Let us know what they say!

[Old Speckled Hen]

the practice I work for will not do - although I am going to check with them as regards chickens - the people that ask for it where I work is for their parrots etc...

 

I'll be interested to hear what they say at work - I never thought there was any problem with it, maybe parrots etc need the exercise of flying Never thought there was any cruelty clipping wings, for chickens anyway. Let us know what they say!

 

It is my opinion that a parrot shouldn't be in a cage anyway

Wing clipping is traumatic in parrots largely because they are often impossible to handle and you have to wrestle with them.

Whenever I had one to do my first question was always, "do you handle him?" and my heart would always sink at the invariable reply.

[katieadams]

 

It is my opinion that a parrot shouldn't be in a cage anyway

 

I agree - I've never had a bird in a cage of any sort so I was completely obsessive making sure my chickens would be happy with us keeping them! I didn't know any other bird was ever clipped, thought it was just chickens because they don't fly so much anyway

[The Dogmother]

I always clip the primary flight feathers on one wing only when I get new girls. I check them and re-clip if necessary for the first 6 months or so, until they get used to where home is.

 

I've never noticed it cause them any discomfort while having it done as it's only the first 2-3" that are clipped - much like doing your toenails.

[katieadams]

- only prettier

[house-elf]

still need to check with work, but the reason isn't that it may or may not hurt, its that birds have wings for a reason...

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Welcome to the forum, House-Elf (love the username ).

 

My 3 were clipped by the farmer before I brought them home. I haven't had to redo it in 18 months. They don't attempt to fly or jump over my 4 ft wall (which has a bit of trellis on top) and only use their wings to jump off things or to just have a good ruffle up and rearrangement of feathers (say after a dustbath). They don't use their wings to fly properly (they're too heavy anyway!) so I don't think clipping limits what they do use their wings for.

[Milly]

One of mine jumps/flies over the electric fencing. We clipped one wing and it made no difference. So we tried clipping the other wing - I know one wing is supposed to make them unbalanced, but as that didn't work we thought clipping both might give her less lift. It has made no difference at all. I'm more concerned about her being caught by a fox while she is out, than about clipping her wings.

 

So - it might be worth a try if you have hens which try to fly. None of the others do, so we didn't clip them after their moult.

 

Milly

[house-elf]

thanks for all your opinons - I forgot to speak to someone at work as we were very busy ! - but I think I will just see how they get on and if I have I will clip them !

 

Thanks again 1

[Hen Watch]

thanks for all your opinons - I forgot to speak to someone at work as we were very busy ! - but I think I will just see how they get on and if I have I will clip them !

 

Thanks again 1

 

Sounds like a good idea to me.

 

I have never had any of my girls escape over my 6ft garden fences.

 

My Omlet girls had one wing clipped on arrival, but 1 month later my new girl didn't. She was being bullied and it helped her fly away from the others. However, a few months down the line, and several forays over the 4ft fence into the veg patch, she did get clipped.

 

I have no problem with it as they can still fly up onto the eglu and garden furniture if they want. Also when they were younger they could get over 4ft even with a clipped wing, but now they are 2 year old ladies and heavier, they just can't be bothered.

[The Dogmother]

One of my girls, a RIR Banty is nicknamed Boeing for a reason she has an impressive wingspan to weight ratio.