Thirty-two pages, twelve essential tips, labelled diagrams, and not one wasted paragraph. Gail Damerow is the author of Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, and this bulletin is drawn straight from it: the coop chapter, pulled out and handed to you for the price of a coffee.

It covers what actually goes wrong. How much space birds really need and how to lay it out so you can reach everything. Which flooring to choose and why. Where to hang roosts. How to site a feeder and a water source so they stay clean. How temperature and weather should change what you build. What free-range access asks of the structure.

Storey has published these Country Wisdom Bulletins since 1973 for exactly this reason: someone who has done it, explaining it once, properly, in an afternoon's read.