First Coast Pet

Posts Tagged ‘free range chickens’

Like many other animals, chickens are social animals and naturally live in flocks. Scratching around freely is normal too. Pet chickens in a small enclosure may be bored and unhappy. A chicken ark will let your pet chickens range on new ground, so is a good first hen house solution.
Chicken arks are designed to be moved around, so the hens have access to new grazing, where they can scratch grubs and bugs, eat grass and weeds. So the chickens have room to move around, and you can separate children and chickens when you want to.
Your children will quickly learn how to handle the hens, but their friends may need some introduction – and some may be wary or frightened at least at first. Children can look at the chickens and observe them closely, when the hens are in the chicken ark.
As children understand more about chickens’ routines, they will learn how to care for them. Children will learn from responsibilities such as feeding and cleaning and they will enjoy collecting the eggs from the chicken ark nest area.
If handled gently, most chicken breeds are perfectly safe to handle. If yu get laying chikcnes, they can be let out of the chicken ark each day so the children can get closer and learn how to pick them up.
When you raise chickens from chicks, children will learn from handling them and watching them grow.
If you want just a few pet chickens, chicken arks work well as they are small and easy to manage. They will learn that each chicken has a different personality and habits.

Layers when they first begin laying may start to eat the eggs. You may be able to retrain them, but some chickens can be hard to cure.

An accident such as an egg being dropped or stepped on will often trigger chickens eating eggs. They are curious foragers so can’t resist this new treat. They may eat the shell, or not. But once they’ve tasted an egg, it can be hard habit to break.

Preventative measures.

Make sure your nest boxes in your chicken ark or hen house have a lip on the bottom of the front so it’s hard to kick eggs out accidentally. Chickens need sufficient space to move around in their nestboxes without damaging the eggs.

A good depth of bedding in the nestboxes will protect them.

Finally, eggs get broken more often when the shells are thinner. Adequate oyster shell will help develop harder and thicker shells.

If the chickens can roam free so they have more interest, or you have a chicken ark you can move around, they will have more interest and are less likely to get bored.

Things you can do with chickens who have started to eat eggs

Collect often. If the egg is left, the more likely it is to get eaten.
Your hens may all lay at the same time, so collect the eggs as soon as they’ve finished. Keep checking during the day if your chickens lay over the course of the day.

This can stop the habit, and it’s worth trying keeping them apart in a chicken ark.

Other things you can try

You could try putting golf balls in the nesting boxes. The theory is that a few pecks on a hard ball will discourage them, so they’ll lose interest and leave the eggs alone.

Wooden eggs look more like the real think, so make work too.

Another thing to try is to remove an egg and heavily coat it with petroleum jelly and then replace it. When the hen pecks at it, she gets a beak full of goop.

Sometimes chickens will start pecking at the eggs out of boredom in the same way they start pecking at each other. Letting them free range or putting them in a chicken ark can work

If you can work out if it’s one chicken who’s causing the problem before she teaches this bad habit to the others, separate her from the rest of the flock and their eggs.

This is where a chicken ark can be useful, so you can house her separately for a while. She will have interest from being moved around regularly, and if you collect the eggs frequently as well, you may break her of the habit.

I brought five hens home, imagining they’d happily wander around my backyard. Keeping chickens is very much about watching them as they graze and hunt. 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.

The ready-built arks had big price tickets. The shipping on them added even more. So I researched plans for chicken arks. They needed to be simple (I’m no carpenter) and with clear instructions. 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. The book of plans, instructions and chicken keeping information has given us all we need.

Now I have a handsome chicken ark with handles at each end so I can move it around. The chickens are very contented. There’s a run to allow them to peck and scratch, as well as a roosting area and a nesting box. 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.

In districts where there are chicken predators such as foxes, owls, raccoons,or skunks, a chicken ark can be an ideal solution allowing them to graze and peck on new ground, and keeping them safe.

The chicken ark is designed to be moved around, giving chickens new ground to forage and browse on, but as the run is enclosed, it keeps them safe. There is a place for roosting and nesting in the ark so they are rotected at night. Even if predators can dig under the run, they can’t reach the chickens.

When you are around to keep an eye on your chickens, you can let them out, and then put them back in the chicken ark run when you go out.

The two-tier chicken arks have roosting areas at the top wth the run in the wider base below. This provides an enclosed run that is also shaded from the sun and provides some shelter in wet weather.

The simple chicken ark has encloded roosting at nesting at one end, then a triangular section run at the other end. This chicken ark design means the run is open to the elements – so the chickens get sun wind and rain, just like the free range outdoors. Your eggs will be as nutritious as free range, but your chickens will be kept safe.

It is important to move the arks regularly though – every day if necessary.

Position the ark anywhere on your plot where the chickens can peck and graze fro grubs or grass and weeds.their diet will consist of a wide varity of foods, so the eggs will have more flavor.

Chicken can be used to hlep clear rougher areas, they will happily remove dead and flopping growth in the fall and can of course, be used to give your lawn some extra fertilizer. The droppings provide instant fertilizer, but won’t build up as you’ll be moving the ark regularly.

The ‘run at the side’ type of chicken ark tends to be lighter and so easier to move, with the roosting part at ground level. For a starter hen house, this is a great design and easy to build.

Building your own chicken ark should result in an attractive, well-designed hen house, which will last for years, give you and your hens a lot of pleasure – and save you a considerable amount.