When it comes to making a poultry farm or buying a chicken for yourself to keep them home, hundreds of questions come to our minds. One of the central questions you’ll find your answer to here is: Can chickens really fly?
Chicken is a kind of bird that most people don’t know. It differs from other birds because it has a comb and two wattles. They can lay eggs and raise their young ones. The male chicken is called cock in their family, while the female is called a hen. Chickens do have wings that help them to take flight. Let’s talk about can chicken fly or not.
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Can Chickens Fly?
In rare cases, you can watch the chicken flying in the air; that’s why most people think that they are earthbound birds. But it’s not true that chickens can fly higher than your expectations. The only reason you can’t see them flying is that farmers might have trimmed them, or they are damaged.
It’s not the same as a bird when you think about flying a chicken in the sky. Chicken can take a flight but can’t fly regularly and longer in the air like other birds. They can lift their body in the air several feet high and remain there for a long time. This flight height and time duration differ depending on the breed of chicken. Some of their species have smaller wings that prevent them from flying.
What Type OF Chickens Can Fly?
All it depends on their breed because some of them can fly over just a foot while some can fly up to the rooftop. One of the most famous breeds among chickens for flying is the Bantam. They can fly very well if they detect any predator or any other danger, they can fly up to a significantly taller tree and stay there until their predator goes away.
Other types of chickens that can fly are Catalana, Ancona, Campine, Sicilian Buttercups, Andalusian, and many more. Including them, breeds from Mediterranean countries are known as flighty birds because they are lightweight with a slim body to keep them in the air for a long time.
Which Type Of Chickens Can’t Fly?
Silkies, Plymouth Rock, and Polish are the most common breed of chicken that can’t fly. They can’t fly because their feathers are smaller than other birds; even if they aren’t stuck together, they can flap them for flying. Silkies feathers look the same as a baby hen. While other breeds have heavy bodies due to which their wings cant lift.
Why Do Chickens Fly?
Excitement
Chickens always love the excitement and want to explore new places that might look annoying to humans. If there is a perch in the coop, you will see them frequently flying from the perch one after the other. Chicken’s flying capability allows them to jump over fences quickly. Usually, they jump over barriers and start roaming around to find something new that will entertain them.
If the coop is smaller and overcrowded, these chickens will fly over fences to find more space to enjoy their lives. So, never build a coop where there’s another of someone else because these chickens can mix into each other easily, creating a problem for you.
Food
The next thing that makes them fly is the food search. If you can’t feed them properly, they will find a way and search independently. If there is a garden around the coop, they will try once to get in there to taste beautiful flowers and plants. Besides this, if they can’t eat flowers, then I’m sure that they will poop everywhere, turning your heavenly garden into a disgusting place.
Avoid Predators
Everyone fears dangerous things; the same chicken flies over fences to protect him and save his life. If there is a predator like a snake or any other first, they will close their eyes with fear, and if it comes closer, they will fly away.
In fear, chickens can fly higher even if a 10 feet fence is nothing in front of them. If somehow they jump over, in the rare case they come back. They are mostly lost and can’t find their way back or fear going back to that same place. So think about their safety first when you are building a coop.
How Far Can Chickens Fly?
Chickens’ ancestors were adept at flying higher and more intelligent than modern-day chickens, who have smaller wings. Chickens can’t fly like birds as depending on a different breed of chickens, they can hardly fly up to 10 feet higher and 40 to 50 feet long.
Few lightweight chickens can fly higher than this because the longest flight taken by any modern chicken lasts 13 seconds, covering a distance of more than 300 feet.
How To Stop Chickens From Flying?
You can apply different methods to stop the chicken from flying. People might think that it’s a cruel step, but you are mistaken because this is done to prevent them from going far-off places. Other than this, they can destroy gardens if they jump over the fences. The best thing to do is build walls higher than their range, so they cannot fly. Here are a few methods to prevent chickens from flying if they still fly over them.
Feather Trimming
The best thing to do is to trim their feathers. In this way, they can’t balance their bodies and can hardly jump off one foot. Usually, one of their feathers is cut, so they become unequal, which makes chickens unstable and can’t take flight.
How To Trim Chicken Feather
Follow the below-given steps to trim chicken feathers.
Step 1:
One of the most complicated steps that could be fun and tiring for you is catching the chicken. The best way to catch them is by taking them to the corner or throwing a towel or any other cloth that will slow them; if you are doing this for the first time, it’s best not to free them from the coop.
Step 2:
After catching the chicken, now it’s time to calm them. Spend minutes to calm them by simply petting them at their back or inverting them. Inverting makes them docile and relaxed. It’s done not to make them panic during trimming.
Step 3:
Now expose the feathers and determine the right ones that are primary flight feathers. You can identify them quickly because they are longer than the rest of the feathers and have light colors. After identifying, grab them and pull them away from the chicken’s body.
Step 4:
Now take clean scissors and cut ⅔ of the feather. But before doing this, try to mark on feathers from where you’ll have to cut them. This prevents you from cutting the sensitive part of the feather, which has veins and might start bleeding. Gently cut the primary flight feather from only one side. After doing this, release the chicken. Now, it will never jump higher to be relaxed.
Cons Of Trimming Feather
It is better to trim chickens’ feathers, but some problems might still occur. Trimming will not allow the chicken to fly, due to which it will never protect him from the predators. Now your chickens aren’t safe at all.
Chickens often jump from a height with trimmed feathers; they cant land properly and injure themselves.
Chickens might bleed during trimming, which could cause infections, resulting in their casualties.
Brailing
Trimming exhibition birds can damage their show and beauty due to which they can’t be exhibited. So, prefer Brailing your chicken; you just have to wrap a soft cord around the chicken in this technique. This will not allow the chicken to open their feathers for flight.
Don’t tie the cord too tightly in brailing and change it frequently, after a week.
Conclusion
So the final answer is yes, chickens can fly but not like the other birds. If you are lucky, you can watch them flying higher than usual. If you are sick from them getting into neighbors’ gardens, then apply the measures mentioned above to prevent them. Otherwise, it’s fun to see them flying here and there, mainly from jumping elevation.
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