Clipped one wing, chicken still flying the coop

Hi,

I let the chickens out of their 4' poultry netting this weekend while I was around. Spotted one chicken making a nest and decided to move them all back into the fencing so they could lay it in the coop. This chicken that was making a nest was bound an determined to get back to this spot to lay. I put it back in twice before clipping its flight feathers. After clipping the feathers it continued to fly out. So we trimmed them shorter, still she gets out. Shes now laid two eggs in her chosen nesting spot, outside of the fencing.

Should I trim the other side? Some say yes, some say no. Any other ways to prevent her from flying the fence?

Just extend your fencing material past any solid structure by about 4-6 in. so that there is no stable place for her to land when she hops to the top of the fence. They usually don't fly over the fencing, but they do hop to the top and then hop down on the other side. Just remove any chance of a solid place on which to hop...chicken's don't like this and won't continue to try.

As Jay says, a 'floppy' fence generally stops chickens, and there's bonus hilarity watching them realise they can't see the top and it's really wobbly!
As long as you don't cut into the dark, live base of the flight feathers, it's possible to cut the feathers really short.

Robert Marr wrote:
Should I trim the other side? Some say yes, some say no.

I say no. As far as I know, the point of clipping one wing is to put the bird off balance when it flies, and if both are clipped it will make just make it a poor, yet straight flier.

Plus it doesn't work...a determined bird will still make that hop and 4 ft isn't anything to a healthy chicken. If you don't have the extra fencing to place at the top of the fence, you can string a double row of just aluminum wire at the top..much like you see in a prison yard with barbed wire. This too will repel the bird from hopping up there.

Yeah, we were "taught" how to clip chicken wings and she wanted both wings cut. So yes, the chickens can still get pretty high, though at least they aren't roosting in the trees any more. Next time they'll all get the one-sided trim.