wing clipping

[jimred]

i have had my bantams for a week now and they have settled in well, i have been letting them out into the garden for 30 mins or so each day.


But they are now wondering a bit far from the coop, the black rock is a bit loopy (but lovely feeding out of our hand) she jumps up or goes into roadrunner mode when a bird flies over or a loud noise.

i wanted to clip their wings but they are all in primary feather moult,should i wait till they finish the moult?

Do chooks always go into moult in July/Aug time?

this is a great site and thank you to everyone for your help

jim

[Two_Sheds]

prolly no help at all, but I just clipped my African Grey today ... her primaries have just grown back and she was getting a bit scatty.

Also, Budgie is moulting A LOT, so it's definitely change of the seasons

[MaureenHall]

If you feel that you really HAVE to clip wings, then doing it while they're moulting is a bit of a waste of time because you'll have to do it again once the new feathers are grown. I've got around the "flying over fences" problem by putting extra chicken wire (or plastic mesh) at the top of the fence sloping inwards and wobbly so they can't land on it. Eventually all the runs will have chicken wire "roofs" so they can't fly out of them, and the garden is enclosed by over 6' fences, hedges and walls so that's ok when they're "playing out"

[Polly Fouracre]

I clipped my bantams wings. It doesn't stop them ranging over the neighbour's gardens !!

[Bramble-Poultry]

You only clip one wing - the idea behind wing clipping is to unbalance them. Clipping both does nothing at all except make the wings shorter, they can still fly and get lift.

pointless whilst they are moulting to be fair and yes it is around the right time for a moult.

personally we prefer to roof everything - stops tehm getting out but also stops things getting in!!

[Polly Fouracre]

I only clipped one wing and that very short! Bantams are a law unto themselves I find!!

[RichmondHens]

Tell me about it! All our laying bantams wings are clipped, and they realise they can't fly out, but one persistent one found a way out under the fence instead. She's the one now sitting on 10 eggs! They until recently free ranged constantly but have had to be "contained" as I got bored of hunting out the nest sites, and I wanted to train the young pullets added this summer to lay in the hen house.

[Two_Sheds]

You only clip one wing - the idea behind wing clipping is to unbalance them. .. they can still fly and get lift.

If you do it right, they can't get lift. They can fly along, and down, but not up

[RichmondHens]

Yes, I have found doing one is sometimes not enough. If I do two, then they seem to not bother even trying.

[Two_Sheds]

I take off 3 or 4 primary feathers (the ends, not the whole thing)

[jimred]

Ill wait for them to complete the moult , then give them clip, 3 or 4 inches off the first five primaries,should that be enough?

Thanks

jim