“If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not making anything.”

If you’ve spent any time on YouTube or Instagram recently, chances are you’ve stumbled across Jude Harper – better known online as Rewilding Jude – building raised beds in the rain, repurposing old trash into something useful, or chatting to his chickens while standing ankle-deep in compost.

What started as a personal project after a huge life change has quietly grown into an online community of people craving slower living, muddy boots, fresh air and a reminder that life doesn’t have to move at full speed all the time.

After losing both his parents in 2022, Jude left behind a life that no longer felt right, packed up his things and moved to a fixer-upper in rural Scotland. No countryside experience or grand master plan, just a gut feeling that something needed to change. Somewhere between building a wonky chicken coop, growing vegetables in reused containers and rescuing ex-commercial hens, things slowly started to click into place. “I sort of felt like I didn’t have a purpose anymore. And this has really helped with that.”

Jude didn’t exactly set out to become a chicken person.

In fact, he originally built his enormous DIY coop as a way to learn basic construction skills. “I thought, ‘It’s probably better to start with a chicken coop than a wall in the house,’ because if it’s wonky, it doesn’t really matter,” he laughs. Three months later – after battling Scottish weather, uneven ground and a steep learning curve – the coop was finally finished. “So I thought… I should probably put some chickens in it now.”

Enter Bossy, Scraggy, Prison Chicken and Hennifer Saunders – four rescued hens from the British Hen Welfare Trust who quickly became the stars of both Jude’s garden and his social media channels.

“I had no idea what good pets chickens are,” he says. “They’re such little characters, and are way more useful than my cat. The cat just brings me rodents.”

Chicken therapy is real

For Jude, chicken keeping became something much bigger than fresh eggs. Like many people taking on a renovation project, he found himself overwhelmed by stress, but the chickens changed something. “If everything’s getting a bit too much, I’ll just go and give the chickens treats and watch them jump around. They don’t really have much to worry about, and it puts things into perspective.”

There’s something about chickens that forces you to slow down. Watching them scratch through leaves, follow you around the garden or inspect absolutely everything you’re doing has a grounding effect that’s difficult to explain until you’ve experienced it yourself.

“They’re so interested in everything,” Jude says. “If I’m outside doing something, they want to be involved.”

And while the internet often romanticizes “escaping to the countryside”, Jude is refreshingly honest about the reality of it all. It isn’t perfect or polished  – sometimes your well runs dry, sometimes your coop goes moldy and sometimes your chickens escape into the neighbor’s garden.

Healing through growing

Long before the chickens arrived, gardening was already helping Jude process grief. He started small – growing vegetables in containers on a tiny patio after his parents passed away.“It sounds cliche, but getting your hands in the soil really does make you feel better.” Watching things grow became a quiet form of therapy, it was a reason to get outside and a reminder that things change slowly.

“The joy I’d get from waking up and seeing what had changed overnight in the garden… it really helped.”

That connection to nature eventually snowballed into composting, growing food, building things by hand and documenting the entire process online. In many ways, it became a way for Jude to stay connected to his parents too. “I think I’ve absorbed all of their hobbies,” he says. “If my mum could see how much I’ve turned into my dad, she’d probably be rolling her eyes.”

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making anything.”

One of the most refreshing things about Jude’s outlook is that he doesn’t pretend to have everything figured out and that’s exactly why his content resonates.

“There’s this idea online that if you can’t do sustainability perfectly, there’s no point trying at all,” he says. “But small things really do add up.”

For Jude, that might mean composting food scraps, reusing old materials, growing some vegetables, or simply making fewer supermarket trips. It’s not about doing everything. It’s about doing something.

“I think the skill I do have is not being afraid to be bad at something.” It’s a sentence that perfectly sums up both his online success and the reason so many people connect with his videos. Watching someone honestly muddle through, make mistakes and keep going anyway feels reassuring in a world obsessed with perfection. 

Start small, start messy

So what advice would Jude give someone dreaming of a slower life, chickens, vegetable patches or simply feeling more connected to the world around them?

“Don’t try and do everything all at once.”

Jude had already been living in Scotland for over a year when he got chickens. Before that came composting, gardening and learning basic skills one step at a time. And crucially – accepting that you’ll probably be a bit rubbish at first.

“No one’s perfect the first time around. You just have to get past being bad at it.”

Jude’s advice is refreshingly simple:

• Start small
• Grow one thing
• Build one thing
• Try one thing.

Because somewhere between the compost piles, the wonky DIY projects and four rescued hens, Jude built himself a whole new life – one that’s inspired thousands of people to slow down, get outside and realise you don’t need to have everything figured out to start. 

You can follow Jude’s renovation and gardening journey on both his YouTube and Instagram channels.

This entry was posted in Chickens