Chicken Arks - Hen Houses - Chicken Coops - Discover Their Unique Differences

If you would like to raise chickens so that you can grow organic eggs for the kitchen table you will need chicken arks, chicken coops, or hen houses for your chickens. The type of housing you supply them with will depend on your personal situation and priorities. Your selection will be based on a number of items like the amount of cash you have and the amount of pullets you will want to raise.

Let us start by defining the terms chicken arks, chicken coops, and hen houses. A hen house and a chicken coop are indistinguishable; the terms are spoken interchangeably. They are houses manufactured and positioned in a permanent site. An ark is different from the others due to its movability. Arks are portable and are easily dragged from one location to another.

If you would like to raise a large amount of pullets you will need a permanently located structure. Chicken arks will nicely hold 3 or 4 birds, but you can often raise a couple more than this amount in many instances. Successfully raising more pullets than this amount will necessitate several portable chicken arks or a bigger coop.

Chicken Arks

There are several distinct benefits to each style of chicken house and knowing these can make your selection simpler. Portable chicken arks do not involve lots of supplies, are fairly low-cost to manufacture, and can very easily be constructed in a single afternoon. Nonetheless, their main advantage is their movability which offers a number of benefits.

Arks use the ground as their floor so your birds will have the ability to hunt around for a portion of their own feed. Allowing them to dine on plants and bugs, in addition to a high-protein pre-bought feed, will provide them with a balanced diet that will certainly help them stay healthy. Additionally, an ark will lessen your feed costs because the birds will be picking up a portion of their food for no expense. Cleaning will also be less time-consuming with this variety of structure because there will not be any at all. Each time one site has been overused or picked clean it's a practically effortless task to drag the ark to a different spot where more luscious vegetation and bugs can be found.

Hen Houses and Chicken Coops

Clearly, one advantage of a hen house is its size. It can hold however many birds as you want. Moreover, because it will forever be located in the same site you can eliminate a good deal of work that you will have with a movable ark. As a case in point, with a proper set of plans you can position a hinged opening or door in close proximity to the nest boxes so that fresh organic eggs can be collected from the outside of the coop without the need to enter inside.

With a chicken coop you can also hook up a labor-reducing automatic watering system. It is an easy job to attach a small hose from a neighboring water source to your waterers to supply water without human intervention. With a portable ark you will be required to change the water every day, but this duty will not be required with an automatic watering system.

Feeders can be built bigger because they are located in a permanent place inside the coop and will not need to be moved. This will allow you to use larger feeders that hold additional feed. Utilizing large feeders will make daily feeding unwarranted. Depending on the amount of chickens you have, you may be able to go many days without feeding. With an automated watering system and a bulky feeder you can often go a lengthy stretch of time without the need for any labor.

With proper planning you can often eliminate cleanup chores almost completely. Constructing your coop a couple of feet above the soil, utilizing wire for the floor, will permit droppings to plunge through the floor to the ground. This will put an end to the need for regular cleanup and will also keep the chicken droppings away from the pullets completely.