Free Range Your Chickens, But Keep Them in a Chicken Ark
Free range, that was the idea when I bought my first chickens. That was much of the appeal of having chickens – watching them scratch and peck contentedly. It didn’t work out quite like that. They started free ranging over to the neighbor’s yard, even getting on their bird table where they enjoyed the plump sunflower seeds.
The answer had to be a chicken coop I could move around. Then they could get to pastures new, but would stay in my backyard. When I was out in the backyard they could roam free, to give them some extra space to explore. Picture the scene: a lovely chicken ark, with hens secure at night and pecking contentedly in the run by day.
There was a big but though, these beautuful chicken arks cost a bomb. The shipping on them added even more. As a result I did some research into chicken ark plans. Simple plans were what I wanted, with clear instructions, aimed at a beginner. I found some clear plans with good instructions for a simple chicken ark, plus plans for a larger hen house and the ultimate chicken coop I could build when I get more chickens.
With cutting plans for materials and step by step diagrams, the plans take me right through the construction process and there’s even lots of useful chicken keeping information that I didn’t know. We’re now set for the future with this downloadable book.
Now I have a handsome chicken ark with handles at each end so I can move it around. The girls are very happy. The roosting area and nest box ae covered to provide shelter, and the run is open so the chickens can peck around. I can put the chicken ark anywhere in my yard that I want cleared, and the neighbor’s bird table is back attracting wild birds, not backyard hens.
Now I’m planning to add to the flock. Should it be the simple hen house next, or shall I go the whole way and build the ultimate chicken coop, with a ridged roof and nestboxes down each side and a large run? It does look splendid, and I feel confident that with the chicken ark plans, I could make it quite easily.
Categories: Pets Tags: chicken ark, chicken ark plans, chicken coop, free range chickens
Chickens in Your Garden – A Highly Rewarding Hobby
Chickens are entertaining and easy to look after. They are rewarding to keep as they’ll entertain you with their clucking around, re-arranging the flooring material in their run and taking dustbaths. You should get eggs daily except in the middle of winter. For about 24 eggs a week, 4 chickens will be fine.
They need somewhere dry to sleep and and nest boxes mean you know where they have laid their eggs, as most chickens will lay anywhere if left to their own devices. Simple hen houses or portable chicken arks are straightforward to build yourself. Chickens will eat grubs and worms, clear tiny insects and bugs and will eat grass and weeds too, if you leave them to roam. You’ll get lovely deep yellow yolks from chickens that feed naturally too.
Apart form a little corn as a treat, the essential food is layers pellets, possibly with some additinal grit to ensure the eggshells form properly. They’ll eat kitchen scraps as well.
You’ll enjoy watching your chickens take a dust bath; first creating a shallow pit in dry soil or sand, then wriggling around and flapping their wings to stir up the dust and clean themselves. If it’s sunny, you’ll often find them lying on their sides with wings oustretched to catch the warmth.
If you have three birds, two may pick on the third as they establish a pecking order, so four is often a better number.
Housing chickens is quite straightforward, a large rabbit hutch will take one or two, but it should be raised off the ground – they can manage a small ladder, to keep it dry. You can make chicken arks (the triangular section chicken coops that you move around) very easily. Try this excellent book which has chicken ark plans and instructions plus information on keeping chickens. Included are clear plans for a tall square hen house and large chicken coop with space for about 15 birds.
Although chickens can live till they’re 15, they will only lay when they’re younger, up to the age of about 4 years. Chickens will come to you and will gather round the coop in the evening waiting to be let in, they are more intelligent than you think.
Chickens will peck and scratch freely if you let them out, so you might decide to keep them in a run at least part of the day, so your plants don’t get too badly nibbled. The chicken ark which you can move every day or two, allows you to move the hens around your plot, giving them access to new ground, but keeping the chickens where you want them.
Chickens need daylight to produce eggs, so you will need to make sure they are let out into their run early in the morning.
Mary Marshall
Categories: Pets Tags: chicken ark, chicken coop, chicken coop plans, keeping chickens
