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There are legless lizards.

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The best deterrent for black bears (the only really effective one that I know about) is two or three strands of really HOT electric fence. This is what beekeepers have to use to protect their hives from black bears.

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A couple more things: If at all possible, build in an area to store feed, bedding, extra feeders and waterers, oyster shell, an egg basket, and whatever you use for cleaning equipment. And an area built in for brooding chicks would be really helpful. The more efficient your layout is, the easier it is to do chores even if you are in a hurry or not feeling well or whatever may hinder. Makes it easier for your caretaker, too, if you need to go away and have someone else doing your chores.

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I’ve had quite a few chicken coops and tractors over the last forty-five years. For coops, I strongly advise making it easy to get in and out of with cart or wheelbarrow loads of bedding (in) and manured bedding (out). So you want it on the ground with a wide doorway. Preferably with an airlock entry — one door, then enough room to close the first door, then a second door. This will minimize birds escaping while you go in and out.

You also want good headroom, for your sake. I have chickens in three different structures right now; two were here on the property when I bought the place, and one was given to me by a friend. The one my friend gave me is elevated, and really inconvenient for getting in and out of it; once I’m in, there’s not enough headroom for me to stand straight. The other two both have low ceilings and I have to be careful not to bump my head. I’m short at 5’3″; when someone taller visits, they have to duck down.

It would be really handy to be able to collect eggs and fill feeders and waterers without having to go into the pens, too. I don’t mind going in with my birds; even my roosters are pretty well-behaved. But it would speed daily chores up to be able to just go down the row taking care of things from outside the pens.

All of my current poultry housing has at least one wall that is mostly wire for good ventilation. In the deep south, you could have all four walls wire (small-mesh, to prevent predators from getting in, and heavy-gauge wire to keep predators from tearing holes in the wire), with maybe sliding doors to cover the sides most of your wind comes from in a bad storm.

If you plan to try to breed your own replacement birds, the ability to divide your coop into at least three breeding pens is useful, too. You don’t need to keep them separated all the time, just divide the birds into breeding flocks about four weeks before you intend to start collecting eggs for hatching. So the dividers could be wire panels that could be taken out most of the time.

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Is there anything on the property besides the well and creek? Any kind of infrastructure at all? If no house, barn, outbuildings, your next priority should be shelter and sanitation, which can, at minimum, be a tent and an outhouse (if allowed) or composting toilet. Some areas require (mandatory, immediately) a septic system and working toilet or you WILL get booted off if you try to live there without those. So you’d want to check that, if you don’t already have a house on the property.

If there’s no house at present, and local regulations will allow, I strongly recommend living in temporary housing for a year before you decide where to put your permanent house. That will allow you to figure out the best locations for a garden/orchard (be a shame to plop the house down on your best garden spot); where the sun and prevailing winds are so you can take advantage of them or mitigate their effects as necessary; potential flood-prone areas or wet spots; your best work path for taking care of everything (use permaculture zones — zone 1 is closest to the house and includes things that need constant attention, like the kitchen garden; zone 2 is next out and might include dairy animals and chickens, and maybe the berry patch; zone 3 is out yet a little farther, and so on to zone 5 which is unmanaged wilderness. You can find more complete explanations of these zones in various books and websites. Include things like barns, workshops, and other outbuildings as you are figuring out your zones). All too often people jump onto a piece of property and start building, and then realize they’ve made a lot of extra work for themselves by not arranging everything efficiently — and when you are doing chores daily or twice-daily, a lack of efficiency can add a lot of extra hours to your work load over the course of a year.

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Compost fork might also be sold as a manure fork. But it should last a long time.

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Once in a while, some kind gentleman offers to help me with bags of feed at the feed store (not so much lately, as I’ve learned to ask for an employee to go out with me to load bags into the back of my truck). Twenty years ago, I usually turned them down, with thanks. Now I’m in my mid-sixties, and my back is bad — I accept such offers with grateful thanks! There really ARE still some gentlemen out there! Of all ages, too — I’ve been helped by both young men, and men older than myself.