Method of clipping Turkeys wings

[Brian999]

I have 5 beltsville turkey poults about 4 months old or so. I kept them in a large run, but started letting them free range since last week. I noticed that right when I let them out they start flying, not that high but they fly. I noticed they get also get scared, and start chasing each other, and flying all over the place. Well 30 minutes ago I just let them out, and one flew about 20' straight into my neighbors yard. There run is on top of the hill in backyard, and my neighbors are below so It's pretty easy for them to make it to the other side. The wall around my house is only 5-6'. I'm on a acre though. I don't want this happening again. We have no real predator problems here so they don't really need to fly to escape anything. There are hawks sometimes, but my yard is well planted they should be able to run under some brush.

I just locked them all up, and I want to make sure there flight feathers are clipped before they free range again. How would I go about doing it? I have never trimmed, and feathers on any bird before. With chickens I never had problems witrh them flying.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

here is a link that shows how

https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-wingclipping.html

Steve in NC

 

[chickenannie]

Yes, just do what's on the chart Steve linked to. However, only do ONE wing (it throws them off balance). If you do both wings they can still sometimes fly. You should not draw any blood when you cut the flight feathers -- that means you're up way too high. It's very easy to see where to cut from the diagram. You have to re-trim every 3-4 weeks because the feathers grow back in. I did it to my whole flock of pastured turkeys and it worked fine, but it was a 2-person job (one to hold the bird, one to cut the feathers).
Let us know how it goes.

 

[Brian999]

Thank you steve and chickenannie. I'll work on that this Saturday because I'll have help then, and then start letting them free range again. I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[Giammona farm]

I've tried both wings and last night the turkey was sitting on top of the coop and flew into a higher branch to roost but he's back now. I waiting for his wings to grow back so I can clip one wing.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

When clipping a wing think about what happens to an airplane.... When a plane looses a wing or a big enough piece of one you hear about the plane crash on the 6 oclock news.

Steve

 

[chickenannie]

Mine literally flew in a circle when I had one wing clipped. They landed ontheir nose which made them very unhappy and very fearful of trying to fly again (that is, until the feathers grew back). They could still jump about 2.5 feet off the ground though.

 

[clucklandbrenda]

I have full grown Bronze turkeys. Both male and female (26 in all) I need to clip wings. They have been free RUN/fly but now will put up some fencing to contain them. They are BIG, STRONG birds. What is some advice you can give me on the best way to go about doing this. We were thinking, in the dark with a flashlight. I don't want my nose broken so any advice to avoid this will be greatly appreciated.

Brenda
Kelowna BC

 

[BarneyChick97]

I also have some turkeys who desperately need their wings clipped. One of my dogs was forced to practice some real patience. One flew so low, you could tell she was using all her will power to not jump and take a bite (my stern, "DON'T YOU DARE" sure helped

). My turkeys have not yet flew into my neighbors yard, but they've not been left alone yet either. (now I don't really trust them) That was a link to trim a chicken's wings. Will that really work for turkeys? I had one fly up on top of our bird coop (a good 12ft??) and they've flown across the yard---a good 20-30 ft.

 

[BarneyChick97]

http://blip.tv/natures-harmony-farm/clipping-turkey-wing-flight-feathers-2412613

Okay. So after I posted, I found this video, for turkeys. Quite helpful. I think we'll try it.