On another thread it was suggested that I "must be about the only poultry keeper in the country who doesn't clip or even pull out the primary feathers on one wing to prevent them flying away".
As you can imagine, that got me thinking. If you have chickens free-range I would be interested to know if you clip their wings and/or if you have problems with them flying away.
In my book chickens are primarily ground-living birds, and in my experience the only "flying" my "flightiest" birds have ever done is what our builder once described as "assisted jumping" or "assisted falling", depending on the direction they were going. In ten years I have had birds walk away (temporarily), but never fly away.
Any comments of your experience would be more than welcome.
Alan
Free-range or Do your chickens fly?
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alan refail
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oldherbaceous
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As a experienced poultry keeper of four days, no plucking or clipping for me. 
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.
There's no fool like an old fool.
There's no fool like an old fool.
We don,t clip our hens wings and none of them have flown away, but about 8yrs ago 2 dogs from the next allotment dug under our fence and killed 18 of the 20 hens we had at the time. The 2 survivors were 2 that managed to fly. 1 was in another allotment with a 8ft high fence and the other in a tree in their run. So when its a matter of life or death they can do it. The owner of the dogs bought us some more hens to replace the lost ones but it was devastating seeing them all dead.
I keep Silkies which cannot fly at all and Guineas who do fly and when startled fly up into the trees though mine are tame and most nights come home and sleep with the silkies or in their own hut occassionally we have a dirty stop out or 2
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PLUMPUDDING
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Some of my chickens are quite good flyers, but I only resort to clipping the flight feathers on one wing if they get the idea that the neighbour's garden is more interesting than my orchard where they live.
It is usually the very young, lighter ones that like to fly about, but they only do lower level flights onto the arc roof when they get a bit heavier. The last escape over the fence was because they found that they could make their way up a tree from branch to branch until they were high enough to fly over the fence, so all the lower branches got sawn off and the main culprit had a wing trimmed, and they haven't escaped since.
I did once have some Fresian fowl which were small and light and flew all over the place, they were more like doves. They looked very pretty with shuttlecock style tail feathers, but only laid small eggs and not very frequently at that.
It is usually the very young, lighter ones that like to fly about, but they only do lower level flights onto the arc roof when they get a bit heavier. The last escape over the fence was because they found that they could make their way up a tree from branch to branch until they were high enough to fly over the fence, so all the lower branches got sawn off and the main culprit had a wing trimmed, and they haven't escaped since.
I did once have some Fresian fowl which were small and light and flew all over the place, they were more like doves. They looked very pretty with shuttlecock style tail feathers, but only laid small eggs and not very frequently at that.
Alan,
Hereabouts we suffer from the RAF low flying sortees and one poultry producer, of the alternative farmer type, lost over 1000 hens all over the district and actually only managed to catch 400. Net loss 600 hens at quite a cost. Her replacements have been clipped!
Be as cocky as you like but lets hope that it doesn't happen to you.
JB.
Hereabouts we suffer from the RAF low flying sortees and one poultry producer, of the alternative farmer type, lost over 1000 hens all over the district and actually only managed to catch 400. Net loss 600 hens at quite a cost. Her replacements have been clipped!
Be as cocky as you like but lets hope that it doesn't happen to you.
JB.
JB.
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alan refail
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Hi Johnboy
We have have ten or a dozen low-flying jets from RAF Valley over here most days - I mean low as in you can see the pilot. As far as I can see livestock, be it poultry, sheep or cattle have become used to the sudden noise and remain unpanicked.
We have have ten or a dozen low-flying jets from RAF Valley over here most days - I mean low as in you can see the pilot. As far as I can see livestock, be it poultry, sheep or cattle have become used to the sudden noise and remain unpanicked.
Hi Alan,
I get the same Hawk Trainers as you do. It is not them that do the damage. The Chinook Helicopter is the real culprit. I had one over the other day and they literally shake my house and the noise is awful.
Some time back I had one over the top of the house and it shook the place so much that two demijons of wine would have fallen off the top of the fridge had I not been quick enough to catch them.
These helicopters fly at about 80ft and at times not that high.
To Chickens they are some awful bloody great bird of prey!
I have already had one helicopter just miss my house and crash less than 100ft away from the house a few years ago.
JB.
I get the same Hawk Trainers as you do. It is not them that do the damage. The Chinook Helicopter is the real culprit. I had one over the other day and they literally shake my house and the noise is awful.
Some time back I had one over the top of the house and it shook the place so much that two demijons of wine would have fallen off the top of the fridge had I not been quick enough to catch them.
These helicopters fly at about 80ft and at times not that high.
To Chickens they are some awful bloody great bird of prey!
I have already had one helicopter just miss my house and crash less than 100ft away from the house a few years ago.
JB.
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alan refail
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Hi Johnboy
Thank goodness we escape the Chinooks then. Plenty of helicopters, but mainly air ambulance and Seakings rescuing injured jetskiers from the bay or the increasing number of ill-equipped climbers off Snowdon.
Thank goodness we escape the Chinooks then. Plenty of helicopters, but mainly air ambulance and Seakings rescuing injured jetskiers from the bay or the increasing number of ill-equipped climbers off Snowdon.
Hi Alan,
What caused the catastrophe locally was three of the buggers flew at about 40ft over them. A claim has gone into the MOD but this can take years to settle.
A local peer of the realm who own umpteen broiler houses lost several thousand birds when a Chinook flew over them causing the birds to panic and they simply piled up in one corner of the houses and suffocated.
I don't like this particular peer of the realm and I certainly do not like his method of production but never the less this is what happens hereabouts. This happened about 4 years ago and I have not heard that his claim against MOD has been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
The trouble is that the lass who lost the 600 Birds cannot afford the replacement costs and cannot borrow money from the bank at present.
Her place is within a stones throw of 14 square miles of forestry where most of the birds took off towards. Very sad really.
JB.
What caused the catastrophe locally was three of the buggers flew at about 40ft over them. A claim has gone into the MOD but this can take years to settle.
A local peer of the realm who own umpteen broiler houses lost several thousand birds when a Chinook flew over them causing the birds to panic and they simply piled up in one corner of the houses and suffocated.
I don't like this particular peer of the realm and I certainly do not like his method of production but never the less this is what happens hereabouts. This happened about 4 years ago and I have not heard that his claim against MOD has been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
The trouble is that the lass who lost the 600 Birds cannot afford the replacement costs and cannot borrow money from the bank at present.
Her place is within a stones throw of 14 square miles of forestry where most of the birds took off towards. Very sad really.
JB.