My dear husband made a lovely fenced corral for the girls.
Our aim was to give our hens an ‘outdoor living’ space for the daytime. They are still securely penned up at night.
Of course you know what happened. One of the red girls– I call her Lucy, after the famous red-head–quickly flew over the fence. In short order, one of the Golden Girls learned that she enjoyed joining her. It really wasn’t a big deal; neither hen went far, but the point being when we do get a garden going, we want to be able to control the hens. So it was wing clipping time.
We learned to clip their wings from the following excellent YouTube video. I was as nervous as I had been to give my horses shots, but just as we did then, dear husband held the chicken while I did the deed.
So far we’ve only had to do the wings of those two wild girls. Now we’re all a lot happier. At least I am. I’m enjoying plenty of room to linger and watch the girls in the golden dawn. I find it good for my soul.
Blessings,<br>CurtissAnn
Curtiss Ann Matlock 
Hubby did a wonderful job with the yard for the girls! This story brought back a memory from when I was quite yooung maybe 5 or 6 and I had gotten those cute little colored chicks for Easter one year and they grew and grew. My dad built a wire fence pen to keep them in. A while later we came home from one of Grandma’s Sunday chicken dinners, to find my chickens were gone. I was told they must have “flown the coop.” I believed that story for over 30 years! Even as an adult, I was destroyed to learn that my dad had put them in the trunk of the car before heading to grandma’s house that day. It took me a long time to eat chicken again!
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Oh, honey, sending hugs. But I’m glad your parents lied about it. That was a kindness to a child. I’m preparing myself for having to kill a chicken when it is time. We’ll see how that goes.
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Look at you! Clipping wings. Smart girl. Mine are in their covered pen, but I always wondered if I had it in me to do that.~~Dee
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Great article! We keep thinking we need a chicken or two. They are so beautiful! Not sure how our neighbors would react??? Tell hubby, “nice job on the fence!”
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We found a video for clipping cockatiel wings about a month ago. I think that is the best way to learn. It is the same feathers that need to be clipped. Also, our birds are sweeter after have their wings clipped!
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You know, I believe our two hens are sweeter, too. Only those two showed any inclination to fly over, thus far. All seem content, and I got 7 eggs out of the 8 hens today!
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I find it good for my soul to read your sweet posts, Curtiss Ann! This one was no exception.
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Oh, Dana, thank you for sharing your gift of encouragement! I am often inspired to read about your running. God bless you, friend.
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Just love it! Last evening we also watched a YouTube video on how to clip our Free Ranged Turkeys’ wings to try to keep them in the pasture instead of all over my front porch, and everywhere else. After dinner, in the stealth of night, our merry band trooped to the back paddock gate where they like to roost. It was as easy as stealing candy from a baby to pluck each turk off the gate and clip their big ole wings. And then we’d carry them to pasture where the other very large turkeys are(too large to fly over the fence!) and carefully plopped them onto the ground to join the rest of the flock. Did this times 17. This morning, 17 beautiful Bourbon Red Turkeys, with very clipped wings, were on the other side of the fence! So much for that!
Char thought maybe we should have just clipped one side so as to make them lopsided. Who knows. We’re back to trying to figure out plan B!
Hope the girls stay put. It’s a lot of work to have a garden and you hope for something from it more than being a paradise for the chickens! 🙂
Love your posts, CurtissAnn. God bless you and your husband!
-Tammy
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Oh, sweet friend, thank you for the blessing! And for the great story of clipping your turkeys’ wings! In the night! Wow! Blessings back at y’all.
Sent from my iPhone
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