Clipping wings time...

I believe that birds have wings to a) scare the hell out of me when they flap and b) escape from predators when they are scared. Therefore, clipping their wings was something that I didn't really want to do, however, the thought of no more flapping in my face was appealing.

We were told that we had to clip the ducks wings, or they may fly away, therefore, this had to be done sooner rather than later. I did initially Google, but there are some things that you need to see first hand, and how to cut a ducks wings is one of them. So, I made a call to a Spanish guy and he popped over to show me how it was done.

The concept of clipping wings, is very straightforward, however, nothing in this house is ever straightforward! The first thing you have to do is catch the duck, which is usually a game of going round and round the pond several times. Once the duck is caught the massive wings need to be held out and then a pair of scissors does all the damage.

Once I had clipped the ducks wings, my attention was drawn to the feral chickens, especially vicious mumma who kept flying out everyday. There is only about 6 chickens that will not stay in, therefore, I decided that I would clip their wings, and show I was in fact far more intelligent than them! So, the 6 were caught, wings were clipped and tempers were flared as vicious mumma begun to karate kick the fence once she discovered she couldn't fly over the 7ft barrier. Battle point to me, or so I thought..

The next day she had worked out that if she climbed up a tree, fell onto the water barrel against the dog pen, leapt from there onto the roof, she could walk to the edge and glide down to the ground and to freedom! Her determination was admirable, and I wondered what on earth was so inviting that she would find anyway to escape. So, I followed her, and soon discovered that she was sitting on 21 eggs in the furrow....the mothers urge to protect her children was strong. We are now waiting for the next batch of chicks, oh joy!