Man finds niche market in chicken coops

TRISTAN SCOTT Missoulian STEVENSVILLE (AP)

When Mark Stoltzfus received the first phone call about building an Amish-style chicken coop, he didn't interpret the odd query as a niche business opportunity. As the phone calls continued to trickle in, though, it occurred to him that it was a niche he could fill. "About three weeks ago people started calling about chicken coops," Stoltzfus said. "They'd seen some of our other structures and asked if we could do coops in the same style." The "style" he refers to is a traditional, board-and-batten craftsmanship unique to the Amish, and Stoltzfus is s...