Warm boot recommendations please

[kirbyhouse]

Greetings all - been a while I'm afraid! Hope all Omleteers are fine and dandy.

 

Having lost my lovely bovan nera's earlier this year we have decided to bite the bullet again and have three gorgeous Japanese Bantams, two of them are 'frizzled' and the other is smooth. Question is about wing clipping. Their wings seem to be quite long and decorative, especially the smooth one (Mayo). Do you clip bantam wings? Do they have the flight capacity that my GNR's would have? It would be a shame to spoil their look if I dont need to.

 

Any advice gratefully received.

 

Sal

[Krysia]

I think it depends on the breed, I have 2 silver laced wyandotte bantams and they are pretty flighty when not clipped.

[GMW]

I have recently gone through the trauma of wing clipping (i didn't do it myself, I got someone who clips pheasant wings with a bit more experience than me to do it). However one was cut a little too short and has had some bleeding, which I've blogged so hopefully someone will give advice what I should do next. I have sussex bantams and we had 2 originally which we thought were both hens, but turned out we had a hen and a cockerel so we swapped the cockerel for a couple more hens however these were a little more free range than the others and ended up on a neighbours fence for the night hence the clipping needed.

 

I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been for the escapees, but I would definitely say make sure you get someone experienced or the vet to do it. Plus its i've read its not always guaranteed to work, so we are now rethinking the coop so we can give them more space to roam about.

 

Sorry if I haven't been much help

[Shirl]

Only vets don't like to do it. I think because clipping wings can be risky. It doesn't take much blood loss to kill a bird and even if clipped some birds still manage to fly. For what a vet can charge to do it I think they think it isn't worth the risk/hassle.

 

Mine were suppossed to be done last week but I got a call to say the vet wouldn't do it. I have to wait until the senior vet gets back from his hols because he keeps chickens himself and he knows with all the animals I've had over the years I put a lot of money his way.