Chicken Clippings

Two of the six new hens have continued to insist on roosting in the pine tree's high branches.  Sleeping outside the coop is an eventual death sentence for any hen who attempts it.  So this evening Bruce and I knocked the two black hens out of the tree yet again.  However, this time, we took the next step and caught them and clipped  their wings.  While we were at it, we also clipped the wings of the small, light bodied Leghorns and Buckeye hens who daily flap over the fence of the chicken run.

It was not a happy night in the coop.  One by one, the hens who didn't follow the rules were caught, brought outside and carefully clipped.  This involves stretching out one wing and trimming back the feathers.  This throws the hen's balance off just enough to keep them from becoming so easily airborne.  From the way they screamed with every feather that was cut, you'd have thought we were lopping off an entire wing.






But now it's all done.  The hens are all safely in the coop, sleeping and dreaming chicken dreams.  Another hopping Friday night at Frogpond.