Chicken & Eggs by Mark Diacono

Author:Mark Diacono
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408896631
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

A Copper Maran cockerel

Where to trim wing feathers

Often though, an antagonistic cockerel remains aggressive and you have two choices: manage the danger by being careful at feeding times and keeping children away, or dispatch the irritating devil (see here). We inherited a cockerel, Henry, from friends and although he was never the most easygoing bird, he became vicious overnight. We managed the situation for a while, tried different approaches for a few weeks but he was taking the pleasure out of keeping the chickens. He took very well to a long slow cooking in red wine, a cidery version of which is here.

Trimming feathers

Chickens are hardly the Louis Blériots of the avian world. At a push they can flap themselves away from the earth for a few brief moments, but this can be enough to take them over a fence. If any of your birds show a tendency to do this you may want to trim their wing feathers. You only need trim one wing, as this unbalances the bird enough to make lift-off tricky, and not a little comical.

You only need to trim the large feathers used in flight (as shown opposite). It is possible to do this alone, but it is easier if you have someone holding the bird for you. Hold out a wing and cut across the flight feathers using strong, sharp scissors. There will be no bleeding and the bird will not experience any pain.

If you catch a young feather it may bleed. If this happens, grip the feather close to the body and pull it out. Although a little painful for the chicken, this stops bleeding and prevents the likelihood of other chickens pecking at the blood.

You will need to trim the wings again after the moulting period, when the bird regrows new feathers.

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