Bad clipping - will the flight featers grow back?

[Zebra9]

Hi, I'm new here We just got our first 6 chickens today and I love them already

We've clipped their wing (only one), as I took them out of the box, so I don't stress them later and they can settle down. But I think we've clipped too many of them - the primary feathers and the secondary feathers too I think. Now I'm reading that they need the secondary feathers to keep warm

so will they grow back? They are 18 weeks and it was hard to see where the primary end. Are they still going to moult?
It's warm now, summer coming, but I hope they will be ready for winter



Thank you so much, I'm new to keeping chickens and still have lots to read and learn. Hope I didn't already make a big mistake, that I cannot take back

 

[chooks4life]

It's all good. Unless there's something wrong with the hens, or unless you actually cut flesh off, they will grow them back.

I got some leghorn hens once who had both had one wing cut as close to the flesh as you'd dare, all feathers trimmed on one wing. Both hens were over 2 years old. Next year they had normal wings.

Best wishes.

 

[Zebra9]

Thank you so much, I feel much better now

I did watch some videos how to clip, but my husband thought he knows better and said we need to cut more just to be sure, they don't fly away

No blood, we were carefull about that !

They are so friendly - one of them jumped on my lap, they eat from my hand. And they eat A LOT, I'm used to feeding two parrots and these chickens eat like crazy

 

[Nambroth]

Ironically, by cutting more your husband might have actually made it easier to fly as he kept a more uniform flight surface! Just keep an eye on them. Generally they will get less flighty as they mature and put weight on.
Cutting mature feathers is like giving a haircut; no harm done as long as you don't cut a 'blood' feather that is not mature. You'd know it if you did!

 

[Zebra9]

Oh no, don't tell me they can fly better now. I'll watch them.
So are their flight feathers mature at 18 weeks? I don't really know all this staff

I'm still busy reading all the usefull info here

 

[chooks4life]

Thank you so much, I feel much better now

I did watch some videos how to clip, but my husband thought he knows better and said we need to cut more just to be sure, they don't fly away

No blood, we were carefull about that !

They are so friendly - one of them jumped on my lap, they eat from my hand. And they eat A LOT, I'm used to feeding two parrots and these chickens eat like crazy

They're going to grow a lot bigger than parrots, and produce so much more, so of course they need to eat a lot more. They're stocking up now for the future. They lay down calcium and other nutrients necessary for breeding long before they hit puberty, and they also have the demands of growth on their dietary intake at the same time.

With wild birds even trimming the very tips of the feathers will stop them achieving altitude. With chickens it's about the same. Personally I prefer their wings intact so they are less likely to injure themselves fluttering down from the perch, and be more likely to escape predators.

Best wishes.

 

[centrarchid]

Flight feathers cut at 18 weeks will not be replaced until until the first adult molt. That molt for a bird currently 18 months old may not occur until spring 2015. There is a seasonality to adult molting pattern and the duration of time the first adult feather set is kept is a function of hatch date. Early hatch birds such those hatched during early to midwinter tend to keep flight feathers for an exceptionally long time before replacing them. Thereafter, timing is typical.

Also clip primary feathers on both wings and clip them short. Best time for that it late fall early winter after all new feathers are in. Clipping bilaterally does a better job of limiting clambering ability which used to scale fences by otherwise flightless birds.

My birds are very powerful flyers. Experimentation has shown clipping both sides is more effective than clipping only one.

 

[chooks4life]

I'd recommend clipping both sides as well, if you're going to clip, because unbalancing the bird severely by clipping only one side heightens their risk of injury when trying to brake their momentum when jumping down from a perch, and it can also spin them in circles as they descend so they land hard and on one side.

Just because you clip their wing doesn't mean they know they can no longer use it, and many birds will instinctively continue to act as though they have two working wings, which can lead to them jumping from heights that a bird with a clipped wing will not safely be able to land from.

Best wishes.

 

[Zebra9]

Thank you so much everybody

They seem to be ok, no flying away, just flapping around and enjoying the space

 

[chooks4life]

Thank you so much everybody

They seem to be ok, no flying away, just flapping around and enjoying the space

Thanks for the update. Some birds just aren't inclined to fly, others very much are, you don't really need to clip the wings of some that aren't, but clipping them young if you're going to clip at all is possibly best so they forget about it being part of normal life early on.

Also, most breeds as far as I know can't lift their body weight once they are grown, the best they can do is break their fall or slow it down a little.

Some breeds have been deliberately bred to have very small and rounded wings to act as a genetic anti flight control.

I bred mine for the opposite, but didn't so much select for large wings as select for those who did best foraging and coping with the least intensive husbandry, and larger wings just seemed to come with the territory.

Best wishes.