Can Chickens Fly?

Do chickens fly?

So the question is, can chickens fly? Well, yes and no. While chickens cannot fly away as birds do, they can fly enough to get into a tree or over the fence or even into the neighbor's yard. Even an eight-foot-high fence is not necessarily an obstacle for a young chicken. So, your neighbors might be complaining that the chickens are coming over to visit. A chicken's flight is not graceful like most birds. Instead, it's like a struggled fluttering. It takes a lot of energy for a chicken to elevate itself.

How can you control your chickens' flight?

Most people worried about their chickens escaping will clip the ends of their long feathers on their wings. The clipping of wings, however, is not a permanent solution. Those feathers grow back, and as soon as they do, your chicken will be able to fly again. If you're having a problem with your chickens flying where they aren't supposed to then, you might have to keep clipping the wings every few weeks to prevent this.
Younger chickens, which are lighter with a lot more energy, tend to fly up and away a little bit more than the older hens. However, once the hens get fatter and lazier, they hardly ever leave the ground.