There are three varieties of housing that you can offer to your poultry: portable (chicken ark), permanent (chicken coop), or none at all. All three have unique advantages and disadvantages. Before you make up your mind to to make a large costly chicken coop there are a few things that need to be carefully thought out initially.

The most natural method is to simply allow your hens to run free in your yard. This will give your hens an opportunity to scratch and hunt for their own food which will normally help them remain healthy. Nevertheless, there are three major problems with this approach. First, if they pick up most of their food themselves they will not get sufficient amounts of calcium, protein, and other nutrients to keep them laying eggs productively. This means that you will be collecting a smaller amount of eggs. The obvious resolution to this problem is to offer premixed feed as a supplemental food to their free range meals.

The next worry is that the birds will be open to attack from the weather conditions. In areas with milder climates this will probably not be an overwhelming problem, but in regions with intense winters a form of shelter is mandatory. The third and biggest problem when giving them no housing is predatory animals. Leaving your flock prey to neighborhood pets and wild animals is not smart. For this reason alone it is necessary to provide some kind of housing to protect your chickens.

The two types of coop you can choose from are portable and permanent. Permanent housing, also called a coop, will be necessary if you are keeping a large number of chickens. Chicken coops necessitate more time, money, and labor to make and maintain your chickens. And cleaning up will be a regular chore with a permanently located coop.

If you are planning on raising a small number of pullets you can make a chicken ark. They are ideally suited for roughly 4 to 6 birds. If you want to raise more than this number you will need to put together permanent poultry housing or numerous chicken arks. A chicken ark has numerous advantages and is painless to put together and maintain.

Since an ark is not very large there are not many materials you will be required to purchase. This will save a large amount of money over building a bigger coop. It also means it will require less time to make. The most ideal arks are manufactured as "A" frames with a window or two and an outdoor porch, but they can be easily personalized to suit your needs.

Giving them both an inside and outside section is the ultimate. The inside area is where the nesting boxes, feeders, and water fountains are placed, while the outdoor sector will be enclosed with chicken wire allowing your hens to hunt and peck for some of their own food. This is the chief benefit of a chicken ark, giving your flock an opportunity to find some food on their own. This will lower your feed costs while keeping your hens healthy and thriving.

Another bonus of a portable chicken house is concerning the amount of time it takes to keep it clean. A permanent shed will require consistent cleaning while a chicken ark will only need to be dragged to a different spot on occasion. Each time one site gets a little unclean you can simply drag it to a different and cleaner spot. Nature will do the cleanup without any help from you. Furthermore, you will obtain free natural fertilizer wherever you locate your portable ark. This is perfect if you have a garden since you will be able to drag the ark around the backyard garden plot to fertilize any area desired.

There are loads of advantages to manufacturing a chicken ark. They are reasonably priced, uncomplicated to make, trouble-free to keep up, allow your flock to scratch and peck for a good amount of their own meals which will save you money, provide protection from wild predators, present you with no-cost fertilizer, and are painless to keep clean.