Can chickens fly - and if so, how do you stop them??

[Drumbeater]

Hi (again!)
I've noticed my ex-batts fluttering around quite a bit, and hopping on and off the raised beds in their bit of the garden, but they don't seem to be able to fly as such - I'm assuming that as ex-battery hens they will have had their wings clipped to stop this? Or is it just that they never had the room to even stretch their wings, let alone try and fly?

My main question is, I now have 6 chicks, and some eggs in an incubator. Will I need to have their wings clipped (by a vet, obviously!) to stop them flying out of the garden, or is there another way of doing it? And is it necessary at all?

Your help and advice would be appreciated!

Cheers

Drumbeater

Dogs, snakes, lizards, fish, dogs and now hens - life is good!!

 

[BabyBantam]

Hello,

You will need to clip their wings if you want to stop them flying - not sure at what age to start, but you can do it yourself with a sharp pair of scissers.... I took my courage in both hands last year and couldn't believe how easy it was. There is an instruction page here - http://poultrykeeper.com/chickens/general-chickens/how-to-clip-a-wing-to-stop-chickens-flying.html
My main tips are - only cut one wing, as you are basically stopping them balancing in the air. If you're worried, cut less off each feather then a bit more, rather than the whole 50%, in one go and remember that feathers re-grow, so you'll need to check the wing every now and again if they are in moult (don't cut them when they are in moult though!).
Hope this helps, good luck

 

[foxy]

With regard to birds flying smaller, younger hens or more flighty breeds are more inclined to fly, and the larger heavier soft feathered breeds such as cochins, brahmas and faverolles don't as rule get more than 2 foot of the ground.

If your birds free range over a large area, then there is a school of thought that wing clipping is not a good idea, and being able to clear a hedge in an emergency is no bad thing! Saying all that if there is a low fence separating you from your neighbours and they have borders that they are rather proud of, your chickens free ranging their garden may not be appreciated, wing clipping may be something to consider.

On the wing clipping, it is not necessary to get a vet to clip them as it is just a case of trimming primary wing feathers on one wing is enough to unbalance them. The feathers will regrow once they moult. Usually it is not necessary to clip again as often they have grown out of the habit.

 

[foxy]

oops sorry BB! Crossed post somehow there!

 

[BabyBantam]

that's ok, least you've proved I'm not talking a load of ..... !

 

[chrismahon]

I've found cheap electrical wire strippers work well for cutting feathers as they cut on 4 sides equaly and prevent the feather quills from splitting.

Chickens need a good reason for flying. It's not a practice they employ routinely and they are not very good at it. We had a post about chicken flights a while back and I think 20 yards distance and 6 feet high was the limit. The world record is 19 seconds I seem to remember.

They will fly for protection or food and it's great to see them do it as they are rather clumsy. So if there is no reason to leave your garden Drumbeater they won't.

We have incredibly flighty Bantam Leghorns and only one used to get out. Lowest in the pecking order decided grass was greener on the other side of the wire and she had her wing clipped and didn't try to get out even when her feathers grew back. Point worth noting is that she could see the other side of the fence and knew what was there. If it was solid I doubt she would attempt to fly, other than to perch on it. So if the boundary is solid and they have an elevated perch in the middle of the garden bet they will be fine. Ours perch on the dividing wall of the compost heap. They just like to be able to see all around them when preening.

 

[Marigold]

I agree with what everyone else has said, but would like to add that young pullets are much more inclined to fly than older hens that have settled down and become tamer. It seems that, once settled into their territory they lose the desire to explore, and also as their bodies get bigger and heavier they are less able to do so anyway. On here, we recently discussed various ways of covering the run with netting to restrain young birds, and I've found this effective for a few weeks when I've had them on a patch of lawn enclosed by chicken netting so they can graze but not escape. I would avoid cutting their wings if you can, as sometimes they have difficulty in shedding the cut feathers when it's time to moult them out. This isn't necessarily the case but i have found this with the first hybrids I did it to - since then I avoided it. Anyway, wing clipping isn't the magic cure for flying, some birds seem to fly quite well whatever you do!

 

[Drumbeater]

Thanks once again for all the help. It's reassuring to know I'm not asking silly questions or, if I am, you're all generous enough to be polite when answering! This is very different to the responses I used to get on another forum I was a member of, for reptiles, where if you as a newbie asked a question the experienced members used to thing was silly or stupid, they weren't always terribly polite in answering it!!

This forum is great - I feel really confident about being able to ask any questions I might have!

Thank you all once again.

 

[Chuck]

Let me clear up what you started off to ask with the ex battery hens. Firstly, they do not have their wings clipped while in the cages. They may have had them clipped when they came out of the cages but it's unlikely. Battery hens spend around a year of their lives in the cages. For the first five months of their lives they are reared in very large sheds with hundreds of other birds. While it is not ideal, they do get to carry out some of their normal behaviour such as scratching, dusting, using their wings and roosting which is why they so often adjust quickly to normak behaviour when they come out of the cages. Their biggest adjustment when leaving, is to get used to night and day again as in the cages, they are under artificial light for 24 hours of the 'day'.
Clipping wings is easy enough, you just have to find the confidence to get on with it. You then need to observe to see if it's effective and sometimes they can escape even with wings clipped. If they can get a leg up by scrabbling on top of the coop, they will use this as a take off pad.
You will also get a lot of conflicting advice on various topics. Some advice is practical and given with an amount of experience behind it, or can be overly scientific, over thought and often researched off the net. I have recently been surprised by how much information on the net is inaccurate or misleading and you wonder who could put such rubbish on there. I'm discovering too that there are lots old wives tales in this chicken keeping hobby of ours.
So I think your biggest challenge will be knowing which advice to follow !

 

[karminski]

i know clipping wings is meant to be easy but i dare not try it :lol: treating a overgrown beak was bad enough next time with that i'm taking them to the vet somethings are easier when they do it but would i ever dare do thw wings ummm nopeeeeeeeeeee :lol: :lol:i would not trust myself with a pair of scissors who will know why ifyou see my horses manes 05 05
you can read as much as you want about chickens and learn so much via a poultry forum but i agree it can get very confusing i tend to take on everything that people say then make my own decision by blending everything said into one answer and work from there and after 4 yrs i think of keeping chocks i still get stuck .

 

[Marigold]

Thanks once again for all the help. It's reassuring to know I'm not asking silly questions or, if I am, you're all generous enough to be polite when answering! This is very different to the responses I used to get on another forum I was a member of, for reptiles, where if you as a newbie asked a question the experienced members used to thing was silly or stupid, they weren't always terribly polite in answering it!!

This forum is great - I feel really confident about being able to ask any questions I might have!

Thank you all once again.

There are no silly questions, only sometimes you get silly answers, as Chuck was saying, and I agree with /Karminski that you ultimately you have to decide for yourself what advice to follow. Personally I've found it very helpful to have different ideas and viewpoints expressed, and in our hobby, the number of birds you keep and the situation you keep them in does vary very widely and this leads to differences in practical husbandry - in other words, what's good for a few garden hens may be different in some respects from what a larger-scale breeder would do, even though the birds' basic needs for food, shelter and general care are essentially the same.
I'm glad you find us a friendly lot, yes that's why I prefer this forum. Do go on asking questions, it's always good to revisit and review ideas on keeping hens, however long one may have been keeping hens.