Flying the Coop

One morning in late August, I looked outside to see our most adventurous chicken, Coco, on top of the fence.  Of course, like an amateur, I ran outside to do who knows what! I just didn't want her to fly away.  Sure enough, she hopped over to the other side of the fence.  Geoff and I had to go into our neighbor's yard and corral Coco back to our side of the fence.  The neighbors were peeking out between the blinds and laughing at this spectacle in their yard.  Slightly embarrassed, we rushed back to our yard and put a chicken wire top on the run, that'll keep her in.  A few hours later, Coco escaped AGAIN! It was time to clip her wings.

Coco, guilty as charged

Clipping a chicken's wings does not hurt at all, it's like cutting your fingernails.  Catching the chicken and getting her to stay still while said painless process takes place is challenging and is definitely, as I have mentioned before, a 2 person job at our house!

First we Googeld how to clip a chicken's wings and found this video, which was very helpful. I got our sharpest pair of scissors and some treats.We lured her into our arms with some strawberry tops.  Once you catch a chicken if you can turn them around and get their head under your arm so they can't see, they go still and stop struggling so you can do what you gotta do.  I held her while Geoff did the clipping.  The idea with wing clipping is to clip the primary flight feathers on one side so they are off balance and can't fly.  These feathers do grow back so I am sure we will have to do this again.

Spread the feathers out for easy cutting

I think I was more anxious than Coco.  I was having flash backs to the first ( and last) time I cut my baby's fingernails.  I was terrified and of course I cut one too short and she cried and so did I never again.  Geoff is now our resident mani/pedi and wing clipping specialist. How's that for a resume builder! 

I held Coco with her right wing feathers spread out and clip, clip, clip just like that, it was over.

Most chickens have 6-10 primary flight feathers

 She ran around the yard flapping her wings and that was that. You can't even tell from the outside.  Now we know that she is safe and hopefully we won't have to make a spectacle in the neighbor's yard for a while.