Clippin' Chicken Wings

Okay.  First let me say, yah, I wish we had gotten some pictures...

Friday evening, we got home from running errands to find that two of our seven girlies (aka chickens) had gotten over our 5 foot backyard fence.  The escapees were not happy about being on the other side of the fence and were desperately trying to figure out how to get back to where all their girlfriends were.  Of course, we helped them back into their comfort zone but realized that the time had come...

It was wing clipping time.

I had seen a video clip on You-Tube a while back on how to clip a chicken's wings.  (Click here to watch.)  Well, Saturday morning after Tom and I had been fortified by a couple cups of coffee, we lured the girlies back into the coop with treats.  Tom was my holder, and I was the wing "stylist".  It was far easier than either of us had anticipated.  The chickens become quite still being held upside down and did not wiggle or complain.  We were so relieved!

There are some differing opinions on whether to clip just one wing or both.  We chose to clip just one wing because we haven't formed our own opinion yet and clipping one wing is faster and easier than clipping both.  I may come back and amend this post later if we find we should have done both.
So now we don't have to worry about them flying the coop...or the fence...or whatever.

Tom said we are one step closer to being real farmers.  And you know what?  I really like it.