• The Ark is designed for up to six chickens. It has a removable floor and roosting bar for easy cleaning. You can use old newspapers to cover the floor; this makes cleaning very easy and saves money. When it comes to cleaning, simply role up the old newspapers and pop it in your compost bin.
• The chickens have a spacious run that can be moved around the garden to provide fresh grazing. We have used a high quality welded mesh to provide the best possible protection
• The Ark itself is raised to provide a dry feeding area underneath.
• The nest box access door acts as a shelf when opened for your basket.

• The door from the house to the run is operated by a pull cord, this makes letting the chickens out a simple task. There is one more door at the rear to provide access for feeding.
• The average cost of a dozen eggs is around five Euros. Four good laying hens will give you well over a thousand eggs a year. Even when taken into account the cost of feed, etc. The Ark will have paid for itself by the end of the second year. In terms of design and real value, we are confident you will not find a better chicken coop… anywhere.

Keeping chickens is an easy straightforward task which requires little effort. As with anything you will learn from experience that the key to keeping chickens is organisation. They need a secure run, access to fresh water, a healthy and varied diet (organic if possible), somewhere to lay and somewhere to roost. Chickens like to keep themselves clean and to do this they dry bathe; so provide them with a tray of sand – an old baking tray is ideal. For the purpose of egg production you don’t need a cockerel although a cockerel does have a calming effect on the chickens, unfortunately this may have the opposite effect on your neighbours!

Eggs

There is nothing to beat the taste of your own fresh eggs! A good hybrid will lay over two hundred eggs a year and you can store eggs for up to three weeks; consider this when you are working out how many chickens you want to keep. Collect your eggs every day.

Feeding

Chickens will eat almost anything, it is very important that they get a varied diet. Try and feed them organically and allow them access to fresh grass and water. Remember you are what you eat! If you want good eggs you must feed your chickens well. They provide a great way to get rid of those household scraps.

Choosing your Chickens

There are many different breeds of chickens but they all share one common ancestor, the jungle fowl (Gallus Gallus). The most suitable chicken for egg production is the hybrid. Hybrid chickens are the result of crossing two other breeds having desirable qualities; the results can be increased egg production, size, weight gain, egg size/colour etc. Most hybrids will not hatch eggs. Hybrids come in a variety of colours, some like the Bluebell and the Amber are particularly colourful birds. An excellent bird for egg production and hardiness is the Black Rock. Chickens make great pets and kids love them! Keeping chickens will give children a confidence that can only be gained by an understanding of the natural world and where their food comes from.