Duck wings clipped but still flying?

[ducklover96]

Both my ducks - a Khaki Campbell drake and an Indian Runner hen - have just recently had their wings clipped but are still flying! The drake flew six feet in the air, straight over my head, when I let them out of their shed this morning. We have dogs and our neighbors have very vicious dogs, and I can't have my duckies escaping their pen. Any suggestions/ideas, perhaps pictures of a good wing clipping job (we may have done it wrong, we used the same method we use on our chickens.)

 

[MNwaterfowler]

Did you trim both sides? You should only trim one side. Be sure to trim at least 7 primaries.

 

[ducklover96]

Only one side is trimmed. I was told not to trim the long feathers at the tips of the wings, correct or incorrect?

 

[MNwaterfowler]

I usually take about 2/3 of the first 7 or so primaries. It throws off the balance enough so they have a hard time getting air time

 

[laughingdog]

The long feathers at the tips are the primary flight feathers, and ones that need to be trimned down to along second set of feathers below them, trimming five to ten i assume, as familiar with other birds but i am totally pretty much new to ducks.

 

[laurabr]

At what age do you trim the primary feathers? We have 3 muscovies. They are about 3 months old and "practicing" their flight skills.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

 

[Kimmyh51]

Both my ducks - a Khaki Campbell drake and an Indian Runner hen - have just recently had their wings clipped but are still flying! The drake flew six feet in the air, straight over my head, when I let them out of their shed this morning. We have dogs and our neighbors have very vicious dogs, and I can't have my duckies escaping their pen. Any suggestions/ideas, perhaps pictures of a good wing clipping job (we may have done it wrong, we used the same method we use on our chickens.)

I have had this problem more than once. I usually trim the primary flight feathers all the way across on both sides. I’ve heard of birds being injured when clipped on one side only, but have had several domestic birds who can fly over waist height and a wild duck who after clipping (see below) can still reach over 6ft and sustain it for 5-10 or more metres.

In both cases it is compared to how high they could fly prior to clipping, but still means they can go over a fence if they really want to.


I recently clipped both wings on a paradise shell duck on someone else’s supposedly expert advice and against my own gut instinct, because she is very human imprinted and too friendly around humans, plus was leaving the property for 1-3 days at a time maybe looking for a mate, and at this time of year a lot of duck hunters who have ponds feed grain out on them to attract ducks to shoot on opening weekend which was 1 May.

I also had a potential mate, a male paradise shellduck coming from another rescue and he cannot fly as he has angel wing. So about a week and a half prior to the start of hunting I had put her in a covered run awaiting his arrival but after a muck up in his shipping it was looking like he would be delayed some time and it was too close to the start of duck hunting to let her out as I knew I’d never catch her again before the 1st of May if I did, but she was becoming very stressed in the covered run.
So I clipped both wings, removed all flight/primary feathers at the outside as far back as I could...and she still managed to fly over 6t, easily cleared the fence and flew a good 5-10 metres at that height.

The run is far too large to be able to put a big netting cover over. The drake arrived finally a couple of days later, and she has been back in the run with him since his arrival, and not stressed now that is there but it is time to let them both out as they have been in there a week now. Both are starting to get pretty bored in there and there is no way they could stay in there for the 3 months of the hunting season let alone u til her wings regrow next jan, so obviously they have to come out soon...

So i am worried she is going to take off when released, as I don’t know that they have paired. He should be unable to clear the fence due to the angel wing, I’ve never seen a bird with angel wing be able to get off the ground at all.

She is wanting to go to a pond on the property, which is large and has a number of wild ducks at it. I used to allow my ducks there but because it borders another property and is flooded along the fence line I have been unable to fence it securely (this is a rental property so the expense and commitment of permanent fencing is not an option). The pond is right beside a busy road where people drive at 80-90km an hr and I am worried if she decides to go It there she might get hit especially as people will expect her to fly off and won’t realise she can’t take off and fly as easily as she should..ie she can still maybe fly well enough to get herself into trouble, but not out of it..

But I don’t know what to do about the female, anyone got any ideas? Worse still she won’t grow back her primary’s till jan next year, I feel like she would be safer with full flight than how she is now and wish I had never clipped her..

Does anyone have any solution for this issue.

Next time some ‘expert’ tells me to do something my gut tells me not to I will listen to my gut.

 

[SolarDuck]

I’ve never seen a bird with angel wing be able to get off the ground at all.

I have. My girl Pigeon had angel wing, but when she got flapping and excited she could still get a good 6 feet off the ground, so I ended up having to clip the angel wing feathers that were sticking out. She was a Muscovy, id imagine that a wild duck breed that is even lighter that you are working with might be able to fly pretty well even with angel wing.