# With God as my witness, I thought chickens could fly. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 20, 2015, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687 "2015-07-20T13:04:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/1 "2015-07-20T13:04:06Z")
The [currently-posted Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1433/why-cant-chickens-fly) gives a brief explanation for why chickens can’t fly. There’s just one problem: They can. I, personally, have witnessed an angry chicken flying across my mother’s living room. Now, they’re not very good flyers, and can’t fly very fast or far, but they can do it. And even their wild ancestors were never all that great at it, needing it only to reach the limbs of the nearest tree. This was a laying breed. It’s possible that meat breeds have so much added weight that they can’t fly any more, but then again, most of that added weight is in the flight muscles in the breast, so I wouldn’t be surprised if meat breeds could do it, too. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/2 "2015-07-20T13:24:25Z")
I’ve seen it too – chickens (some of them, anyway) can, when chased, fly enough to get off the ground and into a tree or some other perch. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/3 "2015-07-20T13:48:24Z")
I’m pretty sure I remember a column that mentioned these really short flights. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/4 "2015-07-20T14:26:34Z")
“[The chicken] had wings, it had feathers; I’m from Detroit, how was I supposed to know chickens can’t fly. I tossed into the air and it just plunged into the audience” — Alice Cooper explaining how a certain myth came about. ---
**Author:** ![sangfroid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@sangfroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sangfroid)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/5 "2015-07-20T14:40:32Z")
Yeah, I’ve seen chickens fly short distances to roost in trees. Not far, and for damn sure not elegantly, but they can fly. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/6 "2015-07-20T14:46:02Z")
Another vote for having seen chickens fly! Nobody put them in the trees or on the fence posts; they just do it. It’s a horrible, panicky sort of flying, but it’s flying. ---
**Author:** ![Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enter_the_Flagon)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/7 "2015-07-20T15:55:57Z")
YouTube has everything, including video of chickens flying (unless, perhaps, those are overfed ducks in disguise). Judging from eyewitness reports, I was expecting to see them flying upside down or in unintentional spiral trajectories, but they seem to fly at least as well as many of us swim: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03BO8WCwWas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03BO8WCwWas) ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/8 "2015-07-20T17:07:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The [currently-posted Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1433/why-cant-chickens-fly) gives a brief explanation for why chickens can’t fly. There’s just one problem: They can. I, personally, have witnessed an angry chicken flying across my mother’s living room. Now, they’re not very good flyers, and can’t fly very fast or far, but they can do it. And even their wild ancestors were never all that great at it, needing it only to reach the limbs of the nearest tree. > > This was a laying breed. It’s possible that meat breeds have so much added weight that they can’t fly any more, but then again, most of that added weight is in the flight muscles in the breast, so I wouldn’t be surprised if meat breeds could do it, too. I’m not so sure that was flying or just [falling with style](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwN6efmhp7E). ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/9 "2015-07-20T18:00:58Z")
For about a year when I was a teenager, we had chickens. We started out clipping their wings and the darned things would still fly over the 4-foot fence and get eaten by our dog. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/10 "2015-07-20T18:06:35Z")
I just saw the neighbor’s chickens fly this morning. Never seen them go more than a few feet to hop up on a fence. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/11 "2015-07-20T18:21:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I, personally, have witnessed an angry chicken flying across my mother’s living room. Huh? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/12 "2015-07-20T18:54:32Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Huh? It may surprise some people, but chickens do get angry. > [@](#): > > Sheldon: I’ve always found that an inappropriate slur. Chickens are not, by nature, at all timid. In fact, when I was young, my neighbour’s chicken got loose and chased me up the big elm tree in front of our house. > > Raj: Chickens can’t climb trees > > Sheldon: Thank God. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/13 "2015-07-20T21:49:48Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > It may surprise some people, but chickens do get angry. Of course chickens get angry … chickens in Mother’s living room, not so often … angry chicken flying across Mother’s living room … I think we’re all getting a whippin’ ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/14 "2015-07-20T21:54:28Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Of course chickens get angry … chickens in Mother’s living room, not so often … angry chicken flying across Mother’s living room … I think we’re all getting a whippin’ Well I don’t know where you grew up but we never allowed chickens in the bedrooms. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/15 "2015-07-20T23:49:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Now, they’re not very good flyers, and can’t fly very fast or far, but they can do it. And that’s what really matters. They always laugh at the first short, slow flights, at the wobbly tenuousness of great beginnings. But mark my words, they won’t be laughing when the first chicken flies solo from New York to Paris. Best regards, A chicken ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/16 "2015-07-20T23:55:01Z")
“Notice that they do not so much fly as plummet.” ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/17 "2015-07-21T00:11:30Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > It may surprise some people, but chickens do get angry. And we’ve a sayin’ `round these parts; “She’s madder than a wet hen”. BTW… I’m another guy who’s seen chickens fly (though, as mentioned, not very far). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/18 "2015-07-21T01:13:33Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Well I don’t know where you grew up but we never allowed chickens in the bedrooms. We allowed them in the sitting room until tea time, then maybe for a brief time in the parlor afters. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/19 "2015-07-21T02:12:24Z")
There wouldn’t be 676,000 hits for “clip chicken wings” and 33,300 hits for “clip chicken wings to prevent flying” if chickens couldn’t fly. You wanna see flying chickens _in situ_? The Cayman Islands are lousy with them! ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687/20 "2015-07-21T03:16:31Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > For about a year when I was a teenager, we had chickens. We started out clipping their wings and the darned things would still fly over the 4-foot fence and get eaten by our dog. Who knew chickens were also so altruistic? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-god-as-my-witness-i-thought-chickens-could-fly/725687.md?page=2)