THE CHICKEN LIFE

Keeping chickens, the whole way through

Guides, courses and coop plans for people who keep a few hens in the backyard, from the first chick to the last egg, written by keepers who have made every mistake so you do not have to.

Start with the guides

THREE PLACES TO START

Read, learn, build

Guides

Guides

Breed choice, coops, feed, health and eggs, written plainly and kept up to date.

Courses

Courses

Structured video courses from first chicks to a mature flock, at your own pace.

Coop plans

Coop plans

Symptom guides and a checklist for the vet visit, so nothing is missed.

200+
Guides on keeping a backyard flock
12
Coop plans, four hens to twenty
6
Courses from chick to laying hen
52
Weeks a year the journal is written

THE FIRST YEAR

What happens, and when, with a first flock

Week 0

Decide and build

Check the rules where you live, pick a breed, choose a coop plan and build it before a single bird arrives.

Week 1

Chicks in the brooder

Warm, dry, fed and watered. You will check on them far more often than you need to.

Week 6

Out to the coop

Feathered enough for the outdoors. The first night in the coop is a milestone.

Month 5

The first egg

Small, often oddly shaped, and the best egg you will ever eat.

Year 1

A flock that runs itself

Daily checks take five minutes. You now understand what you are looking at.

A notebook of mistakes, turned into guides

This started as a notebook of what went wrong: the coop that was too small, the breed that would not stop going broody, the feed that turned out to be mostly filler. It grew into the guides on this site, the courses, and the coop plans that thousands of people have now built from.

  • Written from a real backyard flock
  • Kept up to date every season
  • Plain answers, in the order you need them

The goal is a flock that thrives

The point is a flock that thrives. Not a perfect one, not a big one, just healthy hens laying well in a coop that is easy to look after, kept by someone who understands what they are seeing. Everything here is in service of that.

  • Small flocks, four to twenty hens
  • Welfare first, always
  • Every plan built and tested at home

PICK A BREED

Four breeds most first flocks are built from

Gentle, fluffy and happy to be handled. Goes broody, which is a feature if you want chicks and a nuisance if you do not.

FROM READERS

What keepers say

A short quote from a happy client belongs here. Two or three sentences is usually enough to make the point without losing the reader.
Client name
Role, Company
Replace this with something a real customer said. Specific praise reads better than a general compliment, so keep whatever detail they gave you.
Client name
Role, Company
Testimonials work best when they name the problem that was solved. Leave the wording as close to how it was said as you can.
Client name
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QUESTIONS

The ones every new keeper asks

Three to six. Chickens are flock animals and need company, and six hens keep a household in eggs without overwhelming a beginner. The breed finder helps you pick which.

No. Hens lay without one. A rooster is only needed if you want fertile eggs to hatch, and many towns do not allow them.

Rule of thumb: a few square feet per hen inside and several more in the run, with a roost bar and one nest box for every three or four hens. Each coop plan states its capacity plainly.

The first course assumes nothing at all. Later courses cover health, breeding and hatching, and managing a flock through winter.

The Sunday flock letter

One email a week: what the flock is doing, what to do this week, and one thing worth reading.

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Start the first course

From deciding to keep hens to the first egg, in order, at your own pace.

See the courses