Use a Chicken Ark for Raising Healthy Chickens

Raising Healthy Chickens with a Chicken Ark (Portable Chicken Coop)

If you want to raise healthy chickens the first time, while avoiding the typical costly beginner mistakes, this is the article for you. You will discover the vital information necessary to feed your chickens on a small budget, while keeping them happy, healthy and productive at the same time.

If you want to raise healthy chickens there are two things you need to keep in mind; food and shelter. You provide the shelter by building them a chicken ark. There are many other names for chicken arks including chicken coops, chicken sheds, chicken hutches, chicken houses, poultry housing, chicken housing and more. After you have done your homework and purchased a detailed set of chicken house plans, and have also completed construction of your a chicken ark, you have two more items to accomplish. You need to get some poultry and you must supply them with a healthy balanced diet.

The health of your pullets has a lot to do with the type and quality of chicken ark that you provide for them, but it is also dependent on giving them a high quality feed. To get the highest production, in other words the highest quality and quantity of eggs, you must be certain that your flock is healthy and happy by feeding them a well balanced diet. To do this, there are a few things to keep in mind when you go to feed your birds.

When you are deciding on how to feed your chickens, you will have a choice between purchasing your feed at the feed store, mixing your own, allowing your birds to free range or choosing a combination of these. Free ranging can be accomplished by simply providing a portable chicken coop, which will be discussed shortly.

In addition, you will also need to decide if you want to provide a vegetarian diet for them. The “all vegetarian” diets are usually used by mass producers who want to limit their risk to latent animal diseases in poultry feed. They know that disease could destroy their entire flock, so many decide to use a vegetarian diet to reduce the risk. However, chickens fed on a strictly vegetarian diet are potentially undernourished.

Chickens require protein, which they naturally get from bugs. In addition to this natural protein, they should receive supplements such as grains and fish meal. With this type of diet, small city farmers can maintain the health of their chickens year after year, which can keep them producing a good number of high quality eggs for 10 or 12 years. As far as mass producers are concerned, they will replace their pullets every year, so a diet to keep them healthy for many years is not necessary. Their goal is to get the most production at the cheapest cost, period.

While keeping in mind that the ideal for your chickens is allowing them to forage for their own food around their chicken coops, where they can eat wild plants and bugs, you should realize that although scratching around their chicken ark might be healthy for them, too much free ranging is also a sure-fire way to reduce their egg production tremendously. In this case, a compromise needs to be made. Allowing your poultry to free range outside their chicken coops in limited amounts will save you money on feed, while still allowing your chickens to be productive in the chicken coop. It is just a balancing act.

You can also buy a prepackaged food. This is the easiest, but most costly method. It is as easy as reading the label and choosing the right package. With prepackaged feed, each bag is specially formulated to meet the nutritional requirements of a certain breed. Whether the chicken is male or female also plays a part, so if you are raising pullets, just be sure to buy a pullet mix, which means it will have the right amount of protein and other nutrients.

If saving money is utmost on your agenda you can mix your own feed. Although it will take a little extra time and planning, it is a worthwhile endeavor. If you decide to go this route, just go online and locate a good mixture and then put it together according to the instructions. It is often a wise choice for novices to begin by buying premixed chicken feed. As you gain experience you can mix your own rations. Regardless of the approach you take, free ranging around the chicken sheds is something that you can always let your chickens do. It will not take long before you have a good handle on just how much food your chickens should be allowed to scratch up on their own.

Portable chicken coops are an excellent way to add money-saving options to your feeding repertoire. Your pullets can get fresh juicy protein in the form of bugs and caterpillars while they are getting some fun exercise at the same time. Having your premixed or self-mixed feeds available at the same time will make certain that your birds are getting the nutrients they need for good health. Portable coops have two sections, an indoor and outdoor section. The outdoor area allows your hens to forage for bugs, while the inside area is where you will provide not only the staples of their diet, but protection from the elements as well. Making the outdoor area bigger will give them more space to forage. When there is no more food to be had in a particular area, it is an easy matter to move the portable chicken ark to a new location.

Food and shelter are the most important factors in raising healthy chickens that will lay eggs for many years. Providing sturdy chicken coops can provide the shelter, while a portable chicken ark can save you some money while maintaining the health and happiness of your birds. If you want to keep your chickens healthy and their productivity high, while lowering your feed costs at the same time, this is the way to do just that

Chicken Ark Uses – A Demonstration