This is what happens to naughty hens

Fed up with chasing chickens around the yard we decided to take the plunge and clip their wings. (Apparently chickens "fly the coop" in autumn as they look for new places to set up their own living quarters. Or so the people on the internet claim.) The first step is catching them. Easier said then done:

This is puddlenuts, the fattest and therefore the slowest hen and so the easiest to catch. She is also the noisiest and let us know exactly what she thought of the process.

This is Zippy who allows herself to be caught because she loves to be carried around all the time. If she had her way, she'd leave the chicken life behind and move in with us. We cut the ends off the flight feathers, leaving the "meat" feathers" behind.

I think you can guess what Zippy thinks about all this.

We didn't do the roosters because (a) they are scary big (and Chimples is WAY too fat to get off the ground) and (b) they won't leave the coop if the hens don't leave. (Again, this is coming from all the people on the internet who claims to know more than we do.) I don't really mind if they do take off and find a new place to live, as they are just too damn loud. [Follow up: This morning (a) Mr. Chicken (the other rooster) got out by himself, thereby disproving Internet Person, and then (b) Zippy got out (and Mr. Chicken for a second time) thereby proving either that we need to snip more or that she can just jump high without her wings. Sigh.]