How do I clip the wings of chickens to prevent them from flying over the fence? This is the situation we are moving our chicken pen to a better location on the farm, and my husband wants to let the chickens free range on 2ac of fence pasture, the fencing is horse fencing, so nothing can get in to them except from above, but how do we keep them from getting out? Any help would help. Thanks Tracy

-- tracy (emilyfarms@tsixroads.com), April 24, 2001

Answers

Well, stretch out ONE of their wings and clip AT the line where the longer feathers join the shorter feathers. ESPECIALLY do this at night, quietly, with a flashlight mostly covered (less stress). You can also shine the flashlight UNDER the wing through the feathers to see where the actual wing is. ONLY clip one side. It throws them off balance. If the chicken is lightweight (like bantams) the little boogers can still fly/climb the fence and get out. Houdinis all of them. Good luck.

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), April 24, 2001.

The advice Gailann gave you on clipping the wings sounds good to me. But here is another suggestion, try placing your Chicken House in the center of the pasture as far away from the fences as possible. Feed and water them in or at the Chicken House only. Make sure your roost in the Chicken house are more desireble than roosting on the fence. Good Luck!

-- Mark in N.C. Florida (deadgoatman@webtv.net), April 24, 2001.

Our birds are docile enough that once caught, I can hold the hen in the crook of my left arm. With my left hand I splay out the wing and clip the long flight feathers where the short feathers end. Turn the hen around and do the other wing.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), April 25, 2001.

one wing is the trick

-- lee lynn (dusty29541@yahoo.com), April 25, 2001.

Tracy, you probably have already clipped the wings but I'll add this just in case. The advice from Gailann is exacly correct. If you clip both wings, they still have balanced wings to fly. The wings still work. The're just shorter. The advice I wanted to offer is this. When I was a kid (50 or so years ago) I had some bantams (we called them bannys) and I clipped the wings of one of them. I wasn't careful enough and I had the wing bleeding because I cut too close. He or she, I can't remember which, got well after a while but I'm sure I caused pain and stress. Personally, I hate pain in my body and I'm sure the chicken has a philosophy concerning pain that was similar to my own or maybe exacly the same. Be very careful to clip only the feathers, not the part that hurts and bleeds. Hope this helps Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), April 30, 2001.

Thank you all so very much. I too needed this information.

-- Shelly (yost@snip.net), August 07, 2001.