Frank Hyman

Frank Hyman believes in "happy wife, happy life." So when his wife wanted chickens, he knew they would have chickens. (This isn't just a how-to book. It's also a love story.) But he wanted to be able to go on vacation for two weeks and not come home to a flock of starving chickens. But he found that the conventional wisdom for keeping backyard birds demanded too much time, trouble and money. So as a carpenter, designer and former organic farmer he pulled together 21 very low-tech, very low-cost, very low-maintenance ways to keep their hens happy. In fact they spend less time on chicken chores than it takes to cook their plentiful chicken eggs. Frank calls it Hentopia. He wrote a column about it for Chickens magazine and the columns became this book. And yes, he and his wife, Chris, can go on vacation for two weeks. And no, they don't have to worry about coming home to skinny hens. They made a Hentopia and you can too. You can learn more about Frank at www.hentopiacoops.com.