My happy hen house
Sara Ward, 49, from west London, explains why her back garden is so inspiring for business
Why a garden is eggs-cellent for business
On a warm summer evening on my garden patio, I pour a glass of Pimm’s for each of the 10 people who are here to learn how to keep hens.
With 24 hens of my own and 10 years’ experience of teaching chicken-keeping courses, I have a lot to tell them.
My business, Hen Corner, began a decade ago, when I was sticking labels on to my home-made chutney that I was making for Christmas gifts. I thought it would be nice to have a name on them: ‘Sara’s chutney’ sounded a bit boring.
We lived in a house on the corner of a London street and, rather unusually at the time, kept two hens in the garden. ‘What about Hen Corner?’ I thought to myself. I didn’t realise it then, but that moment became the seed for my now-blossoming business.
When my husband, Andy, and I became parents to our two children,
James and Macy (who are now 19 and 17), we became increasingly concerned about where our food was coming from. Thoughts of sustainability, intensive farming and animal welfare eventually led us to get some chickens for their eggs, and grow fruit and vegetables in the garden, including apple trees and courgette plants. We also now have a hive of bees for honey.
‘You should be blogging about this!’ a friend said to me one day. I realised it was unusual for someone to be living the country ‘good life’ in London. So, thinking back to when I was making my chutney a few months before, I typed ‘Hen Corner’ into Google. Nothing came up, so I bought the domain name for the website.
After I had spent a few months writing about growing food and keeping hens, Omlet, the company that had sold us our chicken coop, got in touch. They asked if I would be interested in running a course on keeping chickens in London, and said they would advertise it on their website.
TAKE A CHANCE ON CHICKS
‘Why not?’ I thought. I was working part time for a charity, so I used my days off to get organised. Six people turned up and I had a brilliant day showing them how it’s done, followed by chatting over tea and cake. It felt so easy and fun, I couldn’t believe I’d been paid for it!
The success of the day spurred me on to set up more courses. I thought that if people were interested in keeping hens, they might also be interested in how to keep bees. And if they were interested in keeping bees for honey, they might also be interested in making their own
chutney. Suddenly, I’d put together a few courses based on what I was doing as my hobbies anyway.
I did this alongside my job for five years, until the charity I worked for relocated. I saw it as an opportunity: I took voluntary redundancy and used the money to focus on Hen Corner.
Ever keen to keep learning, I went on a bread-making course at Bread Angels with my friend Katie. We decided to test out our new skills and told friends and family on Facebook that we would be selling home-made bread at Hen Corner that Friday. Thirty people turned up and we made £380! It was such a success, we’ve been doing our bakery sale every Friday since.
Now, my work at Hen Corner is varied. As well as the chicken-keeping courses, I run sessions on everything from making cheese to baking bread, charging between £45 and £130.
The best thing is working from my home. I love that it shows people how easy it is to be more self-sufficient – if I can do it in my house, they can do it in theirs. It’s lovely not having to commute or pay for business premises – I just had to register as a food business with my local authority. Best of all, my home is always filled with delicious smells of baking and cooking.
To celebrate our 10th anniversary,
I’ll be running a one-week retreat in France this summer. At home, I try to keep the courses to regular working hours, so I can spend quality time with my family – although during the warmer weather, I run evening courses that people can attend after work.
There’s no typical person who enrols on my courses; we get people of all ages and from a variety of backgrounds: some are stay-at-home mums, others are students, and some are business owners. What they all have in common is a love for making and baking, and a curiosity to learn new skills. The people I meet make Hen Corner a joy to run. I’m thrilled I took a chance on it, and I’m grateful to my hens for inspiring me.
• hencorner.com
‘I love to show people how easy it is to be more self-sufficient’