Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael and Nicole Graham.
Michael and Nicole, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Over 7 years ago, we acquired chickens as a hobby…
Truthfully, my wife brought chickens home one day and told me she wanted fresh eggs. I said go to the grocery store, she said, no fresh eggs out of our own yard. Reluctant to even touch a chicken personally, our small family at the time turned from Mom/Dad, Haylie, and 1 dog…
Nicole was working at a small school (The Woods Private School) as a teaching assistant and would help administer the school’s chicken hatching program. Well, all the chicks would start coming home with her, adding to our backyard flock. Before you know it, our flock grows from 5 to 17! We had tons of eggs! We would give them away to friends in the neighborhood, and family. I felt our new lifestyle needed dialing back. So, Nicole and I hand painted a sign stating “Eggs, Coops, Chickens, Herbs” and set up on the side of the road outside Tradersvillage. Hoping to capitalize on their traffic, maybe we could make a few bucks…? Well, I think our sign worked! Lol. We sold everything we brought within 6 hours!
Then and there, The Garden Hen was born.
As for the sign, we hang it proudly on our fence at home today.
I eventually would quit working with my father as a commercial real estate developer, and dive full time into this with my wife!
Donna Boase, owner/director of The Woods Private School has always been an inspiration as Nicole and I are so great full for her and The Woods… She actually gave us our platform to launch our life cycle education program, Project Life Cycle: The Chicken, now reaching over 10,000 students! We have partnered with many great organizations and been able to educate so many.
Most everything we do with chickens has been self-taught. Nicole nor I have a college education, or poultry science degree. We have however logged many many hours of education ourselves through trial & error along with the internet.
Second part to The Garden Hen is our fantastic custom coops we build for folks in their backyard. Over 5 years ago we built our first coop, it was in Tanglewood. Since then, we have built over 88 custom coops in yards right here in Houston and surrounding areas. We have coops at high-end clothing boutiques, schools, and even one restaurant! We start your family off with a coop, help get your chickens, and walk hand in hand with you as you start your new venture. We offer an array of services helping you weekly or bi-weekly to raise your flock naturally. Each family, and yard are different and have their own way to raise “city chickens”… We love helping folks transition into backyard chicken owners!
Recently, Nicole and I started a new, separate business with two gentlemen Seth Bruce and Matthew Weinstein. This business is called My Urban Coop.
MUC is the makers/creators of Chicken Chew, the first feed geared toward city chickens, and smaller urban flocks.
As we acquired more customers and more questions about what we feed our chickens. We always dreamed of our own line of feed one day instead of recommending something we really did not like. Well, the new relationship with Seth and Matthew made this possible!
We now bag by hand, our hands, Chicken Chew every weekend just off Kirby and South Blvd. We have three fantastic flavors: Homestyle Hemp, Frisky Flax, Plump Pumpkin…
Since launching on Amazon, we quickly have become top 5 most popular feeds, ranking in the top 75,000 products on Amazon (that is all amazon products)
We have now 3 beautiful daughters Haylie (13), Harper (3), and Harley-Rose (2) our 3H girls!
There are journeys, and the one that has become our chicken journey is amazing! We are blessed!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not smooth at all! At first, you could imagine telling our folks and friends what our plans with chickens were… We got a lot of laughs, and frankly still do. Mostly now from strangers and a few closed-minded individuals.
Education to us is key!
We want to work with the City of Houston to help adjust the old dated laws dealing with hens. Our city wants fresh eggs, and know what is being fed to their hens. After all, we are what we eat, EATS…
It would fair to think about reasonable ways to have chickens and have the support of our city!
Backyard chickens are already the city’s new emerging secret.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Garden Hen & My Urban Coop – what should we know?
We are a backyard education chicken business. Educating folks from backyards to schools, and anyone willing to listen.
Our life cycle program is eye-opening for our students and hits on so many STEM levels. The 21-day journey educates students about the life cycle of a chicken, and will give them a better understanding of where their food comes from. Unique to our program is the continuous reference to urban farming, and teaching our students that so much can be done on a smaller scale, just like in their own backyard. If they do not have a yard, we talk about possible things they can do with their outdoor environments. It’s about doing your “one” thing and being more self-sustainable. If that is chickens, a garden, bees, or even a small herb box in a window. Do your “one” thing.
The custom coops are mostly handled by one individual Bob Macintosh. Bob has built over 65 coops with us and is a master craftsman. I have learned so much about construction and building via Bob. It was a skill I was not born with. LOL
Bob also owns a separate business called B.E. McBoog Made… BEMcboogMade.com is where you can see some of his products.
Our coops are always an adventure and will be a feature in our TV show we start filming this fall.
The TV show is called City Chickens. It will feature Nicole, Bob, and I in a DDD meets MTV Cribs but with chicken coops. We will interview famous chicken owners, local chefs, and high light local artist through our art pickets that are created as decor for some coops. (Like an accent picket)
We are the only company in the US doing this full time and at the capacity, we are doing it at. There will be others to follow, as we love to see urban farming become more popular.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
To be honest, we give everything we have done up to God… He literally created this opportunity for us, we have run full speed ahead with it!
Our Honesty sets us apart, and willingness to please.
Pricing:
- Our Project Life Cycle: The Chicken prices range from $14 per student for the full three week program to as low as $5.
- Our coops range from $500 and up…
- Our Chicken Chew is priced around $15.
Contact Info:
- Website: the-garden-hen.com And myurbancoop.com
- Phone: 832.722.2249
- Email: thegardenhen@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Mitchell Loper
Christine Lee
The Garden Hen
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
