I think I mentioned that I’d love to have a chicken ark. Because my old portable coop was in worse repair than I thought and I bought an eight month old trio instead of peeps, I didn’t get the set up I’d been planning on in time to house my chickens. I ended up with a modified bunny hutch and am waiting on our permanent coop to be finished. In the meantime, since I’m not sure how long the permanent coop will take to get done, I’ve been checking out more ideas and came across the Ware brand of chicken houses. One of these houses is a small chicken ark kit that is cheap enough to make me think that you wouldn’t save too much by building one from scratch.

While I’d ideally like a bigger ark with a slightly different design, this one sure is tempting to buy so I don’t need to spend a few hours a day standing around warding off hawks and eagles!

Now, I need to decide – Do I buy the Ware kit, do I make do with the bunny hutch set up until the big coop is finished, or do I order chicken coop plans and just build a hen house myself? Decisions, decisions… What would you do?

Well, I think my chicken coop dilemma is solved without a sweepstakes win! My lovely neighbor has offered to build a hen house for me, so if all goes smoothly, I will have a home for our chicks as they get old enough to transition outside. That is excellent news, since the time for ordering our little peeps is fast approaching. (I don’t want to have them shipped to my small post office. I am concerned that there would be a delay in sorting and the peeps would suffer. So, I’m ordering them through the feed store, I think.)

Anyway, now we need to think about the proper chicken coop set up. When you are setting up a chicken coop, you will need a place for them to hang out at night when they go into their coop. This is called a roost, but it is basically just like a parakeet’s perch stick, but a lot bigger. You’ll also need a door for the coop. It is a good idea to have a door even if the coop is attached to a wire pen because some predators are smart enough to scare chickens out of the coop and kill them right through the wire. Shut the door at dusk to keep your chickens safe from those rotten predators.

You’ll want nest boxes for your hens to lay in, too. Nest boxes that are set up by the back of the coop and are accessed by a door in the back are easiest to use.

Next on the list is preparing the coop floor. From the last time I had chickens, I recall that adding some bedding to the bottom of the coop makes clean up easier. I can just rake it out, spray the coop floor down to get rid of the few stray droppings, let the floor dry and put fresh bedding in. It isn’t essential, but I recommend it.

The last thing chicken coops everywhere need? Food and water dispensers. There are several different types and none of them are perfect. The hanging feeders and waterers tend to stay cleaner, though, so I’m going to try them this time around.

Now, remember, this is a set up for hens, not baby chicks. Baby chicks have different needs, including warmth and a toasty place to huddle down low. Most people raise their chicks in a brooder until they are pullets (teen chickies) and are ready to run around outside. I have my brooder all set up and ready to go.

Oh, and if my plan to have my neighbor helps me out falls through, I’ve got a back up. I found the chicken coop plans I like and will just delay ordering my chicks a bit while I order the plans and build it myself!