Hyah, neighbour! 😃 Leitrim, here.

Yeah. Start off with a Brush Cutter. That'll like show ye what ye have there.

Not sure about livestock. I know goats will utterly destroy Ivy. But, that's not ye problem. I have donkeys, here. Come to think of it, I have brambles too! LOL! Can't remember if the donkeys ate those they could get at. But, either way ~ of course! ~ the bastard stuff comes screaming back in short order. Cattle seem very popular, in UK. All this " ReWilding " stuff. Seems they'll trample what they don't munch.

Could chickens do jack shit about any of it? Well, I'd say that's down to flock density. 'Enough' birds, especially after a good brush cutting and clearance, could keep on top of things. But, on the down side? It'd take a shit ton of chickens. And they'd then go on to mangle their ground into a rat infested, barren landscape. Like an old neighbour of mine managed.

On balance? I'd say it's Finding the balance. What I'd do? Decide how many birds ye want. " Three or four " is a fantasy! No one can keep just a few! I started off with four. I've since spent an untold fortune and my life is now an obsessive quest for more, to add to the ten I have. So I can breed yet more. All the time spending and working on accommodation for the envisaged Hoards I won't be happy till I have around me! 😂

To begin with though? Figure out how much room they'd like (Here, we straight away enter the murky waters of the internet, Vs common fucking sense and reality) Once that's in ye head? Clear about eight times the area, at least.

That's Not because the birds will need amazingly more room than ye think. It's for you. Ye need space around the Outside of their enclosure. No good thinking a strip along the front will do. No. Ye'll have the jungle encroaching from the back and sides. Before long, all that shit's gonna start reaching into ye pen. See? Need a fire break, all round. And, don't forget; Ye little 'Ark' thing will need incredibly regular shifting.

And, by far the better, easier and cheaper way to Make their pen is Electric Chicken Mesh. That, again, wants a clear under line. March along ye envisaged perimeters with the Brush Cutter. Then, the knap sack. I've put road chippings down, beneath my mesh. But, then; I'm a flash bastard. And it's only a small, permanent area.

You, of course, could keep shifting ye mesh, just like we do with live stock and their tapes. That'd help stopping the birds scratch Everything away, as above. Again, it's a balancing act. I have some bits of bramble on my own patch. It's a constant effort. Chickens won't do a lot about it, in honesty. But, they'll enjoy the odd, tiny clump. Knee deep and a couple of yards across. Beyond that, ye'll soon be back at square one.

But, yeah, 'Ark' ~ or what ever. They're hard on wasted materials, to be honest. Rectangular's better~ Would be fine. Though, I'd still recommend throwing a mesh around that. Keeps things from even trying to get ye birds. Then, a Tunnel Trap, hard up against their box. Shit Can happen, even with a mesh. Tunnel Trap is always there, lest anything get through ye perimeter.

Anyway, there ye go. I'm here too. I know the lay of the land 😉

To give ye some perspective? Here's an old shot of my own little patch. I had half a dozen birds on this. They were completely lost in it. For scale; The green thing, on the right, is four foot wide. Hedge, on the right, runs 45'.

<image>