Our First StepTowards Autumn Bloom Farm Chicken Coop
🐓 Our First Step Into Autumn Bloom Farm
It’s official – Autumn Bloom Farm has begun.
And like all good family projects, it arrived with enthusiasm, laughter… and a few meltdowns along the way.
We’ve just finished building our brand-new chicken coop in Draycott, Staffordshire. Twenty new Lohman hens have joined our five Bantams, and they’re already settling into their new home as if they’ve lived here for years.
This one really was a full family effort from start to finish. Luca started off keen — “helping” with his toy hammer and passing screws – before deciding he’d had quite enough of mud, cold fingers and chicken wire. Cue tears, snacks and a rescue mission from Mum while I tried to keep my cool and get the last posts in before the next shower rolled through.
Meanwhile, Ev was the real hero of the day – helping me hang the new gate, ferrying chickens one by one from the van to the coop, and somehow keeping her little brother entertained just long enough to stop Dad having a meltdown of his own. She took the whole thing in her stride, and the hens followed her around like she’d done it for years.
And of course, Nanny Finney turned up with the finishing touch – a pot of her famous boiled veg, which the hens have absolutely taken a shine to. They can’t get enough of it.
That’s the beauty of how we work as a family. It’s never picture-perfect – there’s mud, tantrums and a bit of grumbling but we always pull together. By the end of the day, standing there with the coop finished, hens scratching around and the family beside me, it felt like more than just another build. It felt like the start of something that will grow, just like Autumn Bloom itself.
This isn’t just a coop. It’s the first step of Autumn Bloom Farm – our own small, family-grown patch of what we believe in: hard graft, nature and doing things the right way. We can’t wait to see where this goes next, from chickens to veg and whatever follows after that.
Here’s to muddy boots, noisy hens and family teamwork – chaos included. Autumn Bloom Farm has officially begun, and the adventure is only just getting started.