The Lone Ranger Strikes Again: Green Acres Weekend Update

Good news! The dust has settled and I think I can blog again.  The house still has a long way to go until it feels like a home, but the kids are now in their own rooms and the master bedroom is the only room with a hole in the floor at the moment.  Ah, the big box hardware stores are going to love us when this is all over.

Lately we've had an escapee hen who insists on flying over the feathernet fencing and pecking at the tiger lilies, de-worming the garden, and scratching piles of compost out of the bin.  Our initial concern was predators, but now that I've planted some of the garden, we don't want her nipping at the young plants.  So after doing some research, we decided to clip her wings.

Our Lone Ranger, after a romp in the compost bin.

Byron chases down the culprit...

...and calms her down after we clipped her wing.

Initially, we just clipped one wing, and here is a Youtube video (by someone else) that shows exactly what we did.  Most websites will tell you to just clip one side, so as to throw off the bird's balance when she tries to fly.  Well, that didn't exactly get the job done.

Here is the wing I clipped (yes, I was still in my pajamas when she got out on Sunday morning).

She's pretty calm after we clipped the second wing.

Well, with the major flight feathers on both wings clipped, we thought our Lone Ranger would settle down a bit.  But guess who came waddling up to me as I weeded a row of berries last night?  Sigh.

Right now we're researching whether or not it's okay to clip more of the longer feathers.  We clipped only that initial "set" of feathers on each side, as was shown on the video.  This doesn't hurt the chicken at all, but it's not keeping her from flying.  If you have any input, I'd love to hear!

Other happenings...

Homemade seesaw.  I'm in the background, painting the roof of the shed.  Note to self: avoid painting corrugated metal, if at all possible, in the future.

My butterfly catcher!

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