The Best Little Henhouse In Tennessee: Local family’s coop featured in national magazine

Published 9:04 am Friday, July 28, 2017

For the Andrews family, what started as a birthday wish has turned into a clucking good time.

The family, which consists of John and April and their two children, Lillian, 9, and Fields, 3, finished the construction of their first chicken coop in March and by the time August rolled around the coop had been featured on the cover of Backyard Poultry, a national magazine.

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“I had no idea it was going to happen,” said April. “No idea at all. I was completely surprised.”

The coop, which is called “The Best Little Henhouse in Tennessee”, a name that may or may not have been inspired by the famous Dolly Parton film, was chosen by the publication’s editor as the coolest coop and was displayed in a two-page spread inside the magazine along with being pictured on the cover.

The Andrews’ chicken coop is home to eight Silver Laced Wyandotte hens that produce eight eggs a day. The hens’ house was constructed using lumber from a fallen fence giving it an old rustic look which fits well with its old general store theme. Another cool feature of the coop is a watering system that uses collected rain.

There aren’t any prefabricated parts, and the coop was built from the ground up by John after April mentioned off-handedly that, for her birthday, she wanted to start raising chickens.

“I said I wanted them for my birthday, half funny and half jokingly,” said April. “Then I showed him a picture of a coop I wanted on Pinterest which is not that nice. He just built it and here it is.”