Remy, my neighbour who knows everything told us when we got chickens that we’d have to cut their wings to stop them flying! I’ve never seen a chicken fly but Remy is an expert so we took his word for it and he showed us how to do it properly and then left us to get on with it.
Since then of course I’ve seen the chickens fly – even with their wings cut they can get about 3 feet up in the air and they love jumping off the fallen down tree in their new pen – they don’t get very high of course. Apparently a chicken has been recorded as having got as far as 230 yards but I think that must be very unusual.
Anyway to make sure that they don’t fly over the fence and into the neighbour’s garden where they would quite happily eat his vegetables and get us into deep trouble they all had to have their wings clipped – or chicken hair cuts as we told them!
It doesn’t hurt them but it doesn’t look fun and they make a real fuss about it – I made my son help out while I watched between my fingers!
It has had no effect on them other than to stop them flying quite so well but I’m still not looking forward to the next time.
A bientôt Janine
