Chicks getting big... when to first clip feathers?

[d000hg]

Our 6 chicks are now 3-4 weeks old I think... getting a full coat of proper feathers and starting to flutter around the big box we're keeping them in. It has a lid but we're starting to get nervous they're going to start escaping when we feed them and pick them up.

At what age to chicks become able to fly, and is there a minimum age to start clipping their feathers or can we safely do it as soon as they have feathers to clip?

[veggiechicken]

Where are you keeping them?
In other words, if they did "fly" where could they go?

I don't clip any feathers, whatever age they are.

[d000hg]

At the moment in our garage in a box. Not a suitable location for flying, they could get into neighbours' gardens or stuck behind units we can't reach, etc.

We're moving in two weeks to a place with a garden where they can roam around so less of an issue, but still I reckon they'd be easier to keep in the right area when outside the run if they can't fly.

[veggiechicken]

They're not likely to fly for weeks (if ever) but they will run and hide in undergrowth - which is another reason why they need a secure run.

[d000hg]

I'm quite happy for them to do that once we get settled - I've heard they'll come (or can be trained to) for treats or just the sound of your voice?

My aim is a semi-free range setup as we'll have the land... to let them roam when I'm there to keep an eye on them while also having a run.

On that topic... if your coop is in or joined to your run and the run itself is secure, do you still need to close the coop at night? Is this done purely for security or other reasons too?

[Scarlet]

Please, please do not let your chickens free roam in the garden without secure fencing! You can't keep an eye on them all the time. There were 3 people in my house when I lost my flick last week! Believe me if I could have posted the picture of the massacre in my garden you really wouldn't consider not having them in a secure run. One loose wire was all it took.

And yes, they need to be locked in at night.

If you cut their feathers and they do need to fly to get out of danger, what happens then?

[Snadger]

I'm quite happy for them to do that once we get settled - I've heard they'll come (or can be trained to) for treats or just the sound of your voice?

My aim is a semi-free range setup as we'll have the land... to let them roam when I'm there to keep an eye on them while also having a run.

On that topic... if your coop is in or joined to your run and the run itself is secure, do you still need to close the coop at night? Is this done purely for security or other reasons too?

Mine are in a coop in a secure run (I hope) The coop is up high and has a pophole with a ladder for chooks.
They go to bed and get up when they feel like it.
I have kept mine on an allotment site for numerous years and had no bother. I would like to let them free range on the plot when I am there but the majority of mine are bantams and take to the air at the drop of a hat.
I don't believe in wing clipping so for the time being they are confined to the run, with all there toys

[d000hg]

Please, please do not let your chickens free roam in the garden without secure fencing! You can't keep an eye on them all the time. There were 3 people in my house when I lost my flick last week! Believe me if I could have posted the picture of the massacre in my garden you really wouldn't consider not having them in a secure run. One loose wire was all it took.

Well sure there's some risk but whenever you see an old-fashioned farm in a TV show they seem to have their chickens pottering around the place while the farmer does farmer things all day... they they get locked up at night.

And the chicken farm I went to at the weekend had several of their hens let loose to wander around the grounds... nothing stopping them strolling off down the road and the people running it weren't keeping an eagle eye on them. I'll have to ask next time we visit how they deal with such things, and how common it is. Perhaps they had some deterrent that wasn't obvious.

[veggiechicken]

Well sure there's some risk but whenever you see an old-fashioned farm in a TV show they seem to have their chickens pottering around the place while the farmer does farmer things all day... they they get locked up at night.

Not much point in discussing this any further. You've made up your mind
I hope your wife doesn't get too attached to the chicks.

[d000hg]

No need to throw your toys out of the pram. I think it's a reasonable discussion to have. How do people manage to let their birds roam... Or do they accept some losses as acceptable when doing it as a business? You'd think all their coops would have foxes prowling for any opportunity to grab a loose bird?!

[Nicos]

Sorry, but I agree with the others-you will lose chooks to foxes if they free range.
My French neighbours allow their's to free range during the day within fencing but always lose some.
They also have a gun to hand to see off foxes and stray dogs ...and have their barking dogs roaming as
deterants
They have no affection for their chooks....eat the boys, eat the eggs, eat the gals at 2yrs once their laying slows down.

They are treated rather like a crop than part of an extended family.
A few lost to foxes or dogs is a good excuse at weekend to go off hunting with their mates and get bladdered on cidre at the same time.
Bit basic in my mind.
Everyone to their own I suppose.
And nope...they are never clipped...but having said that, they are fed on bread and corn and not expensive layers pellets cos they are just a food commodity and easily replaced.
(Of course though..there are caring chook owners in the neighbourhood too)

[Nannysally99]

Going back to a previous question, you MUST secure the run in The early evening.
If not you may wake up to a massacre - my sister's hens had 3 acres to potter about it, till she forgot to lock them in. It was tragic

[AkionTotocha]

The only bit of chicken keeping I remember from before we moved was that you want the edge of your fencing to go out like a lip by like a foot. A fox will dig down 1ft to get into a coop, but it won't dig 1ft away to get into a coop. But I could be wrong and I'm sure someone will step in if I am.

..I want chickens..

Basically anywhere a cat can get, a fox can get. And a fox will kill one chicken to eat and kill the rest for fun.

[Snoop Puss]

Here's my experience, and I know it will raise hackles:

We have a few chickens. In their compound, they have about 2 square metres per chicken. Some of it is sunny, some of it shady, they also have protection from bad weather.

During hunting season, they stay locked in their compound on the main hunting days and whenever we hear guns and dogs anywhere nearby (boar hunting is allowed on any day between October and late March). The rest of the year they free range every afternoon. Very often I have absolutely no idea where they are. At sundown, the hens take themselves back to their coop. I lock the hen compound door but I don't shut them into their henhouse. We have about 12 acres all told, most of it forest. We are surrounded by similar land, no nearby neighbours and no-one with any dogs. There are lots of foxes in the vicinity. We've been doing this for the last eight years or thereabouts and so far have not lost a single one to predators (outsider dogs, foxes, gennets, weasels or others).

How do we do this? We live in the absolute middle of nowhere, so foxes and other wildlife are still terrified of people. Plus, we have three very large dogs that see the chickens as part of their pack, bark like mad whenever they hear foxes or other intruders and, as happened once, will take on hunting dogs that turn up out of the blue and have a go at the chickens. Our dogs, in fact, are crucial to the welfare of our cats and our chickens. If we go out and lock the dogs in, the chickens get locked in too.

The old farms you see in films are probably in places like ours, not in populated areas. There will be all kinds of refuges for chickens in such places (ours hid amid great thickets of brambles when the hunting dogs turned up). Most gardens don't have these kinds of chicken-friendly shelters. Moreover, flocks in the type of farm you describe and which I remember from my childhood were so large that the odd one that went missing while free ranging was likely to be accepted with a shrug of the shoulders.

If you live somewhere where foxes are accustomed to humans and you do not have chicken-friendly dogs and secure housing to protect your hens, you will lose some if not all to predators, if not foxes then neighbours' dogs.

On whether you can train hens or not, my view is you can condition them very easily as they soon learn who doles out the food. If you have a particular call that you use with them or employ the same feed receptacle, they will come running. Chickens are in fact quite smart birds, and those that free range show an unexpected intelligence and focus. I have more respect for them now than before we started to keep them. We have given our hens names. But we are not sentimentally attached to them in the way we are to our dogs and cats.

[Snadger]

I think if you intend to let your chooks run freely you have to be prepared to take a few losses, if not all in one go!
Even if its in a garden and you are in the house a fox will grab a chook, even in broad daylight and do off with it. Usually they will kill the rest as well.
I once mistakenly left the door open to my run and the fox got in and killed half of my chooks (about half a dozen.) I have quite a few bantams which were mobile enough to get to the top of the run, thus saving them.
I know for a fact that the foxes regularily patrol all the chicken runs on our allotment site, justy waiting for a mistake. The term 'sly as a fox' is very pertinent, but I still luv em!