About us
About Yard Flock
A gear guide for small backyard flocks, built on documented specifications rather than farm romance. Here is exactly how we work and what we refuse to do.
Last updated: September 3, 2026
Yard Flock is a gear guide for small backyard flocks. Six hens on a quarter acre, not six thousand in a barn. Everything here is written for the person who has to carry the feed bag themselves, patch the run on a Saturday, and live with the results.
We cover the equipment side of keeping chickens: coops and runs, bedding and substrate, fencing and hardware cloth, feeders and waterers, incubators and brooders, and the tools that go with all of it. We compare options on documented numbers rather than on farm romance, because a mesh aperture is a fact and a mood is not.
How we research
This is the part most sites are vague about, so we will be specific. Every recommendation on Yard Flock is built from three sources, and we tell you which one a claim came from.
Manufacturer specifications
Wire gauge, mesh aperture, coating method, roll dimensions, material composition, capacity, rated temperature and humidity ranges, and warranty terms, taken from published spec sheets, manuals and product documentation. Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure, we write that it is not published. We do not estimate it and present the estimate as a fact.
Published research and extension guidance
Stocking density, ventilation, substrate behaviour, biosecurity and flock health thresholds come from agricultural extension guidance and veterinary literature. That is why our space figures are stated as published minimums rather than as our personal opinion.
Verified owner reports
We read verified purchase reviews at scale and look for patterns rather than anecdotes. One furious review is noise. Forty people describing the same latch failing in its second winter is a specification problem, and that is the kind of signal that moves a score.
What we do not do
Saying what a site refuses to do is more useful than any claim about what it does, so here is our list.
- We do not test products in a coop of our own, and we never write as though we did.
- We do not accept payment for placement, ranking, or a favourable score.
- We do not publish a score without showing the reasoning that produced it.
- We do not recommend a product that fails a bird welfare check, at any price.
- We do not invent statistics, author personas, founding stories, or credentials.
- We do not use urgency tactics, fake scarcity, or countdown timers.
Why this matters
Poultry gear is one of the easiest categories in which to sound experienced. Anyone can write a paragraph about the smell of a coop in August. We would rather be the site that tells you its method up front and lets you judge the work on the numbers.
What we cover
The site is organised into four territories, and every article carries a coloured band that tells you which one you are in.
| Territory | Covers |
|---|---|
| The Coop | Coop sizing, ventilation, roost bars, nest boxes, bedding and substrate, run design and DIY builds |
| The Flock | Feed and feeders, water and hydration, grit and supplements, mites and parasites, incubation, brooding and seasonal care |
| The Perimeter | Hardware cloth and mesh, overhead netting, electric and poultry fencing, latches, predator hardware, tools and processing equipment |
| Reviews | Buying guides, head to head comparisons and single product reviews, all built on the research method above |
How our scoring works
Star ratings collapse very different products into the same shape. A four star roll of netting and a four star roll of netting can be twenty years apart in service life, so we use a ten notch roost rail instead.
Each product is scored on four or five fixed criteria that stay the same across a category, so the numbers are genuinely comparable. Criteria vary by category: predator resistance and build durability matter for fencing, while calibration accuracy and stability matter for an incubator hygrometer. The overall score is an editorial judgement produced by our research method. It is not a laboratory measurement and we do not present it as one.
Who writes this
Yard Flock is produced by a small editorial team that researches, writes and maintains the guides on this site. We do not publish invented author biographies or fabricated credentials, and we do not attach a made up expert name to work in order to borrow authority it did not earn. Where a guide relies on a specific published source, we say so in the guide itself.
Corrections
If a number on this site is wrong, tell us. Email hello@yardflock.com with the page and the correct figure and we will check it against the source. When we change something material we say what changed. Getting a specification wrong on a poultry site is not a typo. It can cost someone a bird, so we treat corrections as the highest priority message in the inbox.
How we make money
Yard Flock takes part in affiliate programmes, including the Amazon Associates programme. When you buy through one of our links we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Commission rates never influence which product wins a guide, and our reference tables carry no affiliate links at all. The full statement is on our Affiliate Disclosure page.
Site policies
Research method
Everything on Yard Flock is built from manufacturer specifications, published poultry and extension literature, and verified owner reviews. We do not test products in a coop of our own, and we say so on every page.