how to build your own chicken ark
A poultry ark, or chicken coop as they are also known, is becoming an ever more popular addition to many a back yard than you may think.
After talking to some local poultry enthusiasts who succesfully tend their own chickens and produce the best organic eggs in town, I wondered if I could actually do the same without going to the expense of paying top dollar for a brand new custom poultry ark or one of those pre-fabricated chicken coops which are also very expensive.
I invested in some cheap plans from http://www.poultry-
The site included an absolute ton of advice and a bonus section crammed full of hints and tips of how to select, incubate and rear your chicks, something I wished I'd had earlier.
Anyway, as soon as I downloaded the information I set about organising the recommended materials in order to construct my very own chicken ark, complete with automatic egg collection.
I had been wanting to produce my own organically harvested, completely natural eggs for some time but had no idea how to do it. http://www.poultry-
After spending just under $300 on the materials for a mid sized ark that would also do the automatic egg collection, I immediately set to work.
I was concerned that I would need to buy a lot more tools to do the project but I managed fine with the basics although a power saw would have helped a lot, I recommend you get one of those to help with the manual part of cutting the wooden sections.
I already had my chickens (20 of them) so I needed to construct a safe and practical housing solution for them and fast because there are a lot of predators where we live and I didn't want to loose any.
I began building my poultry ark at about 9am on Friday so that I would have time to get any extra materials from the local hardware store should I run short. As it turned out the plans were perfect and I didn't need anything more, not even an extra screw.
I have to say that I worked pretty hard on this project and as a result my chicken ark was built in 10 hours from start to finish. All I needed to do was paint it next day which I did and my new flock had a beautiful, heated living space which was solidly constructed and secure. The quality of the materials and build neant that it was completely safe from foxes and anything else that tried to attack my birds.
The auto egg system worked perfectly first time and it was such a joy to see our very first eggs being delivered after just a few short weeks.
Our birds seem to be very happy as they settle down to nest every night without coaxing and the egg production has been such a revelation that friends and neighbors have offered to buy our delicious produce.
All in all, buying these plans have been a great investment, there is no way I could have built such a quality poultry ark without them. I'm sure my neighbours are appreciative of the fact that our chickens have somewhere unobtrusive to live rather than just constantly running around.
Fortunately I have space to build another and thanks to http://www.poultry-
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
