Clipping a Chicken's Wings

Are you thinking you should have named your chicken Houdini? It's no fun to find out your chicken flew the coup (literally). If you're lucky, he's roosting nearby and easy to catch. If you are unlucky, he is coyote bait. If he's a she, you'll have less eggs tomorrow if you don't get her before the predator does.

Per the request of Hive account@bchick, this is a quick post to demonstrate how to clip a chicken's wings. I clipped the wings of all of our hens a few months ago, and none of them flew over the pallet fence surrounding their chicken yard. The roosters were left alone and never left their ladies for more than a few minutes. They were sort of cool looking perched on the fence anyway. Tonight I used one of the roosters, named Carl, for the demonstration.

The Hunt
Ok, it isn't really a hunt if you know where they are. It was after dark when I saw the request, so I just went to the coop where they were roosting. This sure was easier than when I chased 10 hens down in the afternoon!

No, the one on the left isn't a massive chicken. That's our turkey named Tom. His wings are clipped as well.

First I grabbed Carl and held his body with his wings trapped down so he couldn't flap them. I tucked his head under my arm and he remained completely calm.

Next I fanned his wing out. You can see my finger pointing to the line of feathers where the secondary feathers overlap the primary flight feathers.

You want to cut along this line, removing the visible part of those primary flight feathers. Regular scissors work fine. (I was sure to ask Hive account@clickinchicken which scissors she preferred me to use. She is a sewing woman. Scissors are to a sewing woman what a tool is to a man. Use the right one for the job. And sewing scissors aren't the right ones!)