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About the Authors

 

Crawford Solomon grew up in the Alachua County area. He has 35 years experience as a thatcher and naturalist educator, and living in Chickees. He has taught various courses on nature based living, edible native plants and native medicinal plants, and natural systems.

 

Crawford learned how to build Chickees by studying Chickees built in the Silver Springs area, back in the late 1960's when Seminoles were still thatching in that area. He first started experimenting with palm and pine trees to make pine bows. The first chickee he created was a chicken house built of saw palmetto in 1971.

 

Kiara Winans and friend, Jonathan Pywell, learned how to build chickees from Crawford Solomon. Both Kiara and Jon were inspired to build a chickee because of the artistic and the technical aspects of chickee building, and by the opportunity to use and experiment with natural building materials. The first chickee they built was their home, built in 2003.