Hentopia: Create a Hassle-Free Habitat for Happy Chickens; 21 Innovative Projects

We, who keep backyard chickens, for a few years, feel as though we know it all, and are more than willing to share that knowledge with anyone who wants to know it, or doesn’t want to know it, as the case may be.

It is sometimes hard to think back to a time that I didn’t have chickens, and had no idea where to begin. Hard to remember that when I first got my baby chicks, I kept them in my office with me, and when they were “coop ready” I moved them into the garage because I had not really thought through this whole “what-to-do-with-the-chickens” thing. I mean, yeah, I knew I had to get them a coop, and a yard, and all that, but hey.

My whole point is that everyone who is curious about chicken keeping needs to have a good resource, and while the local feed store is more than willing to sell you all bits you need for a chicken, they are not there every day to help you with the chickens. So a book like this one is such a good thing™.

The author is very straightforward, has a good wit on him, and explains all the ins and out of making a safe place for your chickens to live and lay. From building a run, to setting up a good laying box, to what to do with all the chicken droppings. (Hint: compost).

He even mentions why you would need a coop to begin with, as though we had gotten this far into the book and though, oh the heck with it, they can live in the trees.

The pictures a very clear, the projects are discussed and each step is shown, along the way. There is even a section on what tools you would need to build each of the projects in the book, which rang from things as simple as an automatic feeder, to a nesting box add on to the coop.

Highly, highly recommend this book to those who are just starting out, and perhaps to those who have had a coop and chickens for a while, for the next steps they want to make in the process.