Chickens are friendly, no-fuss food-making machines. Keeping a small backyard flock of these charming birds may be easier than you think, and the eggs you’ll get are tastier and more nutritious than what you buy in the store.

You can find MAKE’s detailed how-to guide here. You can also build a henhouse motion detector that notifies you when your brood arrives safely in their coop each night and automatically closes the door to keep them safe.

For more tips by Make go to www.makezine.com.