More eggs, less work! And more enjoyment for both the chickens and their keeper! That's the promise of Frank Hyman's Hentopia.
From the Vending Machine Feeder to the Refilling Rainwaterer, Hyman's innovative building projects are designed to save time and money while keeping chickens safe, healthy, clean, and well fed. Featuring easy-to-follow instructions and colorful photos, the 21 projects for the chicken yard range from creative doorways, nest boxes, fencing, and roosts to a predator-proof pen, a "Chunnel" chicken run, and a sturdy but inexpensive coop made from wooden pallets. With a lively, humorous voice, Hyman generously shares his expert advice on all aspects of chicken-keeping. Requiring minimal previous carpentry experience and using many salvaged or found materials, Hentopia is within reach of every aspiring chicken-keeper. Take more pleasure in owning a backyard flock with low-cost, imaginative projects that reduce chores, solve common problems, and benefit chickens and chicken-keepers alike, from a predator-proof chicken run to a self-filling waterer, automatic coop doors, and more. Frank Hyman is a certified mushroom forager who teaches mushroom identification to chefs, arborists, organic farmers, and the general public. His writing on foraging has appeared in Forbes, Paleo Magazine, and Hobby Farms. He lives in Durham, North Carolina. Preface: My Wife Wanted Chickens
Part I: Chicken Habitat
1 Feed the Masses without Any Messes
2 Drink Up (Or Down)
3 The Hen Pen and a Chicken Corral
4 Enrich and Accessorize
Profile: Adventurer Hans Voerman's Caribbean Hen Habitat
Part II: Ins and Outs of Chicken Coops
5 Doorways Four Ways
6 No-Burnout Cleanout and Ventilation
7 Building the Best Nest Box
Profile: Award-Winning Chef Suvir Saran's Heritage Breed Chickens
Part III: Backyard Building
8 Tips on Tools for Non-Carpenters
9 High-Quality, Low-Cost Materials
10 Coop Design
Profile: Author Amy Stewart's First-Lady Chickens
Egg-cellent Questions
References and Resources
Metric Conversions and Equivalencies
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index Keep Chickens with Less Work & More Joy
Free yourself from the burden of daily hen-tending tasks, and go on vacation without worrying about your flock. How? Turn your backyard into a hentopia: a chicken habitat that keeps your flock safe, clean, fed, and entertained, with less work left over for you. Frank Hyman's ingenious designs and DIY instructions guide even those with minimal carpentry skills in building inexpensive, low-maintenance structures and accessories to create a sustainable paradise for your hens.
"This is the book I wish I'd read when I started keeping chickens. Frank Hyman is so funny and personable that he has managed to write an extremely handy and detailed chicken-keeping manual that is also quite entertaining to read. More importantly, he's lived the backyard chicken lifestyle and solved every imaginable problem using nothing more than a few ordinary tools and some ingenuity. Whether you're dreaming of keeping chickens or already manage a flock of your own, you will be inspired to take on one of these projects--and your chickens will thank you." - Amy Stewart, NYT bestselling author of The Drunken Botanist and Wicked Plants
"Having worked with Frank for nearly a decade and read dozens of his articles and columns, I always walk away with some new bits of information that I can put to use right away. Hentopia is no different. Frank's creative projects are practical, well designed and easy to do and will make your everyday chicken-keeping chores a breeze. He's a true zen master of poultry!" - Roger Sipe, Editor, Hobby Farms and Chickens magazines and HobbyFarms.com
"Practical, resourceful, and fun!" - Melissa Caughey, author of How to Speak Chicken and A Kids' Guide to Keeping Chickens, and blogger at Tilly's Nest
