[hillfooter]

If the situation is as you describe I don't see the need to clip their wings which will only hamper their ability to escape preditors and is disfiguring.

Most new keepers think that their chickens are just itching to escape so regard their run as a sort of confining prison.  However once chx are homed to their house and run that's where they want to be, where they are safe and secure with a plentiful supply of food and water.  If a chicken accidentally gets out they fret about outside the run trying to get back in!  My runs are in open countryside with just 4 foot electric nets and my chickens never leave their runs unless by accident and as I said they go back in pronto.  Chickens aren't like parrots or other caged birds in this regard.

The only time I have clipped wings is with a small flock of Legbars who decided that it was a good idea to roost in a tree every night and the only way I could break this habit was to clip one wing as Joy says.

They will also roost in their house without your assitance.  Should you need to get them in before dusk a handful of corn does the trick.

Don't fret and all will be well.
HF

[feelingbroody]

thank you  will do

HF thank you also. I have a coop in a run and I have been tending to them and putting them to bed at their discretion around 8.30 pm and getting up at four am to let them out of their coop!!!! so tonight I have left the coop/nesting area door open into their run (which is secure) I think I am being a trite over protective and I am sure you are all laughing at me  out there  but its just my inexperience and I do do do want to get it right!!
so hopefully they will survive the night oh and I hopefully wont keep getting up to check on them 

Thank you again
Broody

[feelingbroody]

Well HF and Joy I took your advice and decided to run with it  let the girls out yesterday not a clipped wing in sight and they were soooo happy , so thank you for your comments it felt right not to clip in the end 

Broody

ps it was so funny watching them peck and squabble over the worms 

[Big Bird]

Broody

4am...!!

Ours get let out of the coop when we are ready.  In the week this is around 7am and at weekend between 8:00 to 8:30.  As for bed time they seem to be putting themsevles to be around 9:00 to 9:30 at the moment, and getting later and later until the nights start to draw in and before we know it it will be to bed at around 4:00pm.

BB

[feelingbroody]

BB

I know 4am is a little obsessive  :blink:

I now leave them with the coop door open every night ( this is in a secure run!!) and they get up when they want and go to bed when they want, I just go and read them a bed time story.....just kidding
and its so nice only to see one 4 o clock in any one day 

Broody

[TeaPots]

to lose your girlies to a fox is DEVASTATING, it is just not worth taking the risk! We let ours out at 7.30 every morning, into their secure runs, check to see they are all lively and happy.

They take themselves off to bed at dusk, and I go out to them, lock them in safe, top up their feed as required, empty their waterers and bring them up to the outside tap for filling and replacing fresh when I let them out again in the morning. They seem to like their routine, and I haven't YET received any complaints from neighbours about noise too early.

My friend Andy had ALL his birds attacked and killed by a fox that climbed over his very high fence. I lost my gorgeous Polands to a fox who couldnt dig under (concreted) or climb over (pen was roofed) so it managed to kick in the whole weldmesh side-panel, and got in that way. People have reported they learn to jump over an electric fence too. PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE dont risk losing them to a fox. lock them in safe to bed at night.

ps I agree with HF

[TeaPots]

I clip one wing of any new girls I get, just incase they fly over the fence and dont know their way back. Once they know their own home, I dont do it anymore, they dont really stray, apart from Marge who pops next-door to lay an egg for my elderly neighbour.  but she's always back for tea 

[bobh]

We clipped ours, although I don't think we needed to in hindsight. None of them have even tried to fly they're just happy scrattin about round the garden and in the shrub bed. It is so funny watching the girls actually chasing the one thats found a juicy slug, or when its time to go back in the run I tap on the little bag I have the mealworms in, its like having 4 roadrunners 

[hillfooter]

BB

I know 4am is a little obsessive  :blink:

I now leave them with the coop door open every night ( this is in a secure run!!) and they get up when they want and go to bed when they want, I just go and read them a bed time story.....just kidding
and its so nice only to see one 4 o clock in any one day 

Broody

Before I got automatic doors I used to leave the house open with the chickens in a wire weld mesh run which was within an electrified outer run.  I didn't have any problems but then I don't seem to have a major fox problem generally and I consider myself lucky in this regard.  There's so many rabbits, pigeons and pheasants about us (the farmer a few hundred metres away rears pheasants and he controls foxes plus providing easier pickings that the foxes pass me by).  It's difficult to generalise and with your situation you too maybe safe but there's always a small risk no matter what you do.  Even with the best set up if it depends on you locking them up, one day you'll forget and you could be unlucky.  A belt and braces approach is the best you can do and most importantly provides peace of mind.

HF

[Casey76]

If you do clip a wing, if you leave the first 2 flight/primary feathers, you can't tell the wing is clipped when they are tucked up

[feelingbroody]

OHHHH

now I dont know what to do. I agree with teapots that it must be devastating, its not a problem for me to lock them in their coop at night, I take it this is not with food and water as I have done previously and it just gets knocked everywhere.

There run is fully roofed and has a brick wall full height one side and concrete gravel board and 7ft  fence panel the other and a weld mesh and wood door, I dont see how foxy loxy would get in but having said that I do know how devious and cunning creatures they are. My ladies are just so adorable so I dont want to risk anything. There was a great article on hen keeping and how it had changed the lives of an urban family in London, in the weekend magazine of the Sunday Mail last week, dont know if anyone saw it

Broody

[hillfooter]

Sounds Ok as long as the weld mesh is 19swg or thicker and the fence panel is not of the woven lath type, which aren't very strong.  I'd think the risk is very low.

HF

[feelingbroody]

Thanks for the words of wisdom all