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I have all three of the above. Chickens are very stupid and unless they are shut away they are likely to sit around when its dark are wait to be eaten. Turkeys are slightly brighter but when they get bigger can not fly that high so might be prone to being eaten as well. I lost one of my males and he was well over 25lbs to a fox he could not get far with it but he ate what he wanted then left the rest, such a waste. Guinea Fowl are the brightest of the lot, they are noisey but the fly just about as well as a pheasant and will roost high up in a tree.

 

Why are you going to keep them meat or eggs. If its eggs they will need somewhere to lay or you will not find many in a wood, and this is the place the chickens will wait for the fox to come for dinner.

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Al4x I'm not really bothered. Frenchieboy point taken someone stole 18 chickens from the pub down the road. Rimfire excellent reply I was sort of going to let the turkeys guinea fowl roam free and the chickens roam free but I made a shed for them to lay eggs in (if they will). There fen traps out and I'm going to put the snares back out

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On one of my permissions I've been given the go ahead to keep some chickens, gini fowl and some turkeys in one of the woods. Anyone want to give me some tips on keeping them. I plan on releasing them and letting them roam free.

:hmm: In that environment I'd go for a lightweight breed that can at least fly to get out of trouble and perch in trees. Silver Spangled Hamburghs are bonny birds that will lay for ever. I doubt the heavier, soft feather breeds like Orpingtons would last long in a wood to be honest. The chances of predation are very high and they have no defence at all. As Rimfire said, Guinea Fowl might be a good choice, but it's something I've never kept.

 

Silly question: why don't you stick a pen up and do some pheasant and partridge? That way you can at least release them and get some shooting in :good: .

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I have all three in the wood where I shoot. The turkeys were great, pretty safe from foxes, out of ten only two were nailed by a fox, both as they came down from roost. Chickens , if they go to roost they should be relatively safe but I would still not expect them to last long, if they will not go to roost then you can expect them to last days and not weeks. Guinea fowl, same as turkeys, pretty good at avoiding fox but those we have lost have been generally killed near the roost tree. We cut an area of grass next to our pheasant pen, the birds are most vulnerable during teh summer when the tall vegetation allows charlie to belly crawl up to his target unobserved. If our experience is anthing to go by, do not expect to find any eggs at all, but we do have pretty solid ground cover in our wood.

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That Hugh Fernley Whittingstall chap had a good idea in one of his River cottage series.He made a chicken coop which was about 10ft off the ground called 'Chickenopolis' and they accessed it via steps.It didnt take him long to teach the hens how to negotiate the steps using food and allowed them to free range,but safe from predators at roosting time as they cannot climb the steps.

Coop.jpg

 

Not sure if suitable for turkey or guinea fowl though,but i supopose it just comes down to size.

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That Hugh Fernley Whittingstall chap had a good idea in one of his River cottage series.He made a chicken coop which was about 10ft off the ground called 'Chickenopolis' and they accessed it via steps.It didnt take him long to teach the hens how to negotiate the steps using food and allowed them to free range,but safe from predators at roosting time as they cannot climb the steps.

Coop.jpg

 

Not sure if suitable for turkey or guinea fowl though,but i supopose it just comes down to size.

I reckon a fox would climb that :hmm:

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I have guineafowl and old english game hens they wander around the fields and roost in the trees at night and the noise that they make is enough to wake the dead it keeps any charlie away and most intruders but they lay there eggs anywhere and it always seems to be around 11am every day and guinea fowl dont make good mothers

 

Mark

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Its illegal to release any non native species into the wild.

If you release them but claim them to be domestic livestock, you could find yourself facing cruelty charges if you don't provide them with adequate housing and support.

The RSPCA would love to hang your scalp from their wall.

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