[spoofer28]

HI
I am new to this site and am looking for some advice?
1 we are hoping to buy some woodland/ rough pasture soon which would be the best type af chicken to keep?

2 hubby has just finished converting a vivarium into an incubator what temp shoud it be set at for the best results

thanks for any advice
Lynne

[muntjac]

welcome to the gang and nice to see ya a chuckbuff ...  ok before you consider putting the birds in the woodland  your going to need to go round and clear all branches from ground floor to a hieght of about 10 ft to prevent the birds from roosting in them ."""" why ? well if they roost in the trees they are not going to roost in the sheds and be protected from foxes etc also they will lay eggs anywhere and everywhere in the sheds they wil at least lay them in the nest boxes .you will still probably have a dum bird try to lay them in the open ,.but that comes with the job . now as for breeds  well what do want the chickens for / eggs and or meat or just eggs ? for eggs i wil tell everybody welsummers  having had them for life   for novelty and rearing chicks buff orpington bantams . for meat well there is a lot of choice . can i suggest you read  my article on keeping chickens  ( top of the poultry forum page) .once again welcome to the gang  your in good company here   as for the incubator .i dont use them so i will leave that for the other chicken buffs to advise you

[spoofer28]

thats going to be the problem as at the moment we are looking at about 5 acres of woodland? and to try and cut back the branches would be almost impposible?
I would like them to roam about freely but it might not be poossible
there is 5 or 6 old pheasant pens in the woods and it is mixed woodland
with the majority beening huge mature pines and then patches of broadleaf sprinkled with rodadendrums(think thats the spelling)
in real terms we would like to thin out the pine and add more broadleaf

[Esmeralda]

Hi spoofer28, I'm new too and am thinking of getting a couple of chickens!

Would anyone recommend wing clipping to stop them roosting in trees? Or can they still jump?!! :?

[muntjac]

wing clipping is fine if your talking about doing the feathers only . if you have pheasant pens then your sorted have a shed put up inside the pen use electric fox wire around the pens and you have everything ready .i use the pens myself for rearing pheasants ..