Missy's Homestead: Chicken Wings

My husband has been holding down the fort while I have been gone and of course that means helping with our Co-Op Backyard Chickens.    We live in the back of a larger house so we share the chicken responsibilities with the gals that live in the front.  

Greg Chasing Down Gloria

A couple weeks ago Greg started to notice that the chickens were not only in the yard but behind fences, in the back ally and the final straw was when Miriam was on the roof of our house.  If we were going to keep these little flock ladies in our backyard and not lose them something had to be done.   We don't really have the resources or materials right now to build a large full caged in coop and run for the ladies, so we needed to come up with another way to keep the chickens in the backyard and still allow them to roam free while we are gone.  So Greg and I discussed options and in the end it was decided that we should clip their flight feathers.  

This is a very simple procedure that is often performed on birds, that are pets, so they cannot fly away.  I never thought we would have to worry about the chickens flying away as the are notoriously non flight birds but they actually can get up pretty high when they are determined.  They also LOVE to be as high up as possible since it makes them feel safe from predators.  

Gayle Working Her Magic on Gloria

The ladies in the front house were all for it but they opted out of performing the deed.  I was away working and so I couldn't do it and Greg was willing to help but wasn't sure he could do everything by himself. 

Turns out we had a veteran bird flight feather remover in our family!  My wonderful Sister-in-law Gayle had once done this with a pet parakeet.  She watched a few YouTube videos about clipping flight feathers on chickens and Walla!  Honestly the hardest part was catching those chickens!  The procedure took seconds and as soon as it was done the chickens were back running around the yard scratching for grubs and chicken scratch.   As times goes on I realize why farms and homesteads are so much work.  Very much worth it, but even the smallest little homestead takes a lot of time and there is often tasks to perform that you never thought you would need to do.  It never occurred to me when we got the chickens that we would have a problem keeping them in our yard.  I just figured that it would be so nice back there that they would never want to leave!  How silly of me to assume my desires for the chickens would be exactly what they would want to do.  

Until next time.  Consume More, Buy Less, Ask for help from your friends or family for help.  You never know what strengths they might have.

Missy