I own 100 acres in the heart of the big thicket here in Texas, I think its the largest virgin thicket left in North America. I built a house on it and wanted to have some chickens pecking around the yard mainly for looks, so I started buying chicks from McMurray and ideal, I would raise them in a pen and turn them loose when half grown. The varmints are so bad here its unreal, you name em I got em, so I started looking for a "wilder" chicken and ended up with the gray jungle fowl, they are very hard to catch, even for a bobcat. I don't know if any of yall know what a youpon thicket is but I built a pen right in the middle of one, its so thick you cannot see the sky anywhere from within the pen, I used the natural canopy from the youpons for a roof. I bought 8ft black coated chainlink fence to go around it, 800 feet, then went around that with 3ft wire with 1 inch squares, then went around that with 2 rows of electric wire, so no varmints can dig under. I have a bad raptor problem so the overhead cover works great, as does my 22 magnum, there is just enough room around the inside to be able to walk around and keep the shrubs and trees from growing into my wire, I keep it trimmed back. All this summer I have been hatching gray jungle fowl, red golden, yellow golden, silver, amhurst, and partridge, raising them to half grown in separate pens and then turning them loose in the giant pen, its pure heaven, I have a chair and small table where I can go in there in the evening and have a cold beer and watch my birds in their natural environment, its about 1/3 of an acre. Now yall are thinking he"s crazy, they will just fly out....but they wont, why, you ask, no pressure that's why, if nothing can get after them they stay right there, they all fly up into the trees at night to roost, then come down in the morning. I have two range feeders that hold 50lbs each at each end, along with 3 waterers that hold 7gal each, I fill the waterers about once every ten days and the feeders will last 2 weeks, one has pellets and the other hen scratch. I have created my own eco-system and plan on putting more stuff in there, this spring I will put a couple pair of those fancy ginea pigs in there, I'm also gonna dig out a little circle and put one of those little kid pools in there too. Also I have put 4 blue indian peafowl, several game chickens with the dark green legs, a few gold seabrights and a few silver. I am sure that eventually some of this stuff will get out via the trees, but they wont go anywhere, they will stay right around where they can hear the calls of the birds in the pen. I think I put 37 gray"s in there so far and boy do they love it, my next big thing is I want some Rue Rue partridge to go in there, they are a ground dweller and live in the thick woods so I think they will do great, but man are they hi, 500 a pair IF you can find em. I have a small fortune tied up in this pen, but I saved up until I could do it right, besides all the wire I think I bought around 60 4x4x12ft treated post for line post and maybe 15 8x8x12 corner post, all buried 4 feet deep, then the wire, omg is wire expensive or what ? well I figure doing it this way at least I wont ever have to re-do anything in my lifetime, and my kids and grandkids(when I have some) can enjoy it. I have friends that drive 50 miles from the town we live in just to have a seat in the pen with a cold one and watch the feeders to see what comes to eat, and take pictures lol. My only problem now, and I solved nearly all of them with this pen, is keeping the crows from flyin in to eat my feed. I applied for and after 8 months received ( its Texas ya know ) a license to own and carry a silenced weapon, I put it on my 10/22, it makes less noise than a bb gun, all you can hear is the shell ejecting, almost silent (check youtube ). I sneak in there before daylight and get set up, they start coming in at daybreak and I start layin em down, the dead ones serve as decoys to bring more in, I'm set up at 65 feet from one feeder and 50 from the other, for those who don't know a crow may be the smartest animal in the woods, very hard to get one, and if you miss one he will go tell all the others not to come. Sorry for the small book I typed here, just wanted to share my experience...Roost
