[Pepperpincushion]

Is it fair to wing clip?
My girls like to fly a bit here and there and I'm getting nervous. We have 6 foot fences round most of the sides and thick bramble bushes at the end but if they take a flying leap off of the top of their coop or some other object then they can get quite a bit of height and go 10 foot or so forward. Am I worrying uneccessarily that they will escape?
I'm wondering about clipping their wings but it seems a bit mean since they clearly love being able to get up on top of their run or coop or onto the rabbit runs. 
Any advice?

[pigeonpie]

I think it has to be a balanced decision and there is no right or wrong answer.  If you do decide to clip just remember that you only clip one of the wings on each bird.

If there is a genuine chance that they could escape then it might be worth thinking about it, but equally it might mean that they are less able to "fly" out of the way of predators if needed.  They can still be very good at hoping up on things like the coop and rabbit runs even with a clipped wing though.

[8doubles]

Will they cause damage to a neighbours garden if they go OTT ?
They will still jump and flap a metre high with a clipped wing so do not feel too guilty if you do have to clip , it does not really bother the hens at all.

[Pepperpincushion]

The neighbours wouldn't be bothered but they do have two dogs so the chickens might!
If clipping wouldn't bother the chickens too much then I might give it a go - I just felt bad that they might try to fly and feel upset when they found they couldn't do it properly!
Is wing clipping fairly easy? I have the instructions in the Haynes manual and I'm guessing it can't be any worse than cliping the nails of a nervous/agressive rabbit 

[compostqueen]

I did clip my girls wings (one each) but it made no difference and they merely flew out of their corale as if to demonstrate the point 

My mate does hers as they are real flyers-out and she's forever having to round them up

You could wait and see if they bother to escape. They may never want to    Some of the heavier breeds just aren't that energetic but the light birds are and bantams especially

[Casey76]

If you have a sharp pair of scissors it takes about 10seconds to clip a wing - probably not even that.

[8doubles]

Wing clipping is a doddle compared with rabbit toenails. A 5 second with kitchen scissors per bird job.

[Pepperpincushion]

Maybe I will try it and see if it makes a difference then.
How long do they take to grow back?

[8doubles]

The next moult .

[Pepperpincushion]

Just realised that was a very silly question!!   

[8doubles]

Just realised that was a very silly question!!   

Still thinking rabbit claws !  I probably still have scars from that.

[Pepperpincushion]

Yes, they are very good at self defense!

[billathome65]

Just realised that was a very silly question!!   

Still thinking rabbit claws !  I probably still have scars from that.

Try clipping ferret claws then 

I had my chuck wings clipped and i'm not even letting them out the run yet.

[hillfooter]

Personally I would only wing clip as a last resort if I've determined there's a real problem.  I'd never do this as a matter of course.

The disadvantages of doing this are, they are less mobile and able to look after themselves,  it can be detrimental to appearance and generally disfiguring and, particularly in winter, reduce their insulation on cold nights. 

Unless done well and fairly severely it doesn'r always have the desired effect and mostly only effects their ability to fly longer distances.

HF

[Lindeggs]

I'm sure my pullets would be capable of getting over my 6-ft fences if they were motivated to do so, but they don't.  I was all prepared to clip their wings if I needed to (and a lot of people told me I would need to) but I'm glad I waited.

I have a 5-ft high gate between the back yard (chicken central) and the front yard (out of bounds).  The chickens have squeezed through a tiny gap to go under the gate, but since I plugged that they have never tried to go over despite having discovered the gourmet offerings of the front yard.

This might be breed-specific (mine are all heavy breeds) or due to individual temperaments, or simply that the back yard has a lot of nooks and crannies with delicious bugs still undiscovered.