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Raising Chickens For Dummies

Author: Visit Amazon's Kimberley Willis Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0470465441 | Format: EPUB

Raising Chickens For Dummies Description

Review

'Admirably comprehensive, lucid and sensible guide.' - The Times, Sept 2011
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Raising Chickens for Dummies

Learn to:

• Raise chickens in virtually any backyard

• Choose and purchase chickens

• Construct the right housing

• Feed and care for your chickens

Kimberly Willis

Poultry breeder and enthusiast

with Rob Ludlow

Owner, BackYardChickens.com

Your hands-on guide to modern chicken-raising methods

Thinking about raising chickens? This comprehensive, practical guide gives you expert advice on all aspects of keeping chickens in your backyard. Whether you're interested in chickens as pets or as a source for eggs or meat, you'll find all the latest information on housing, feeding, healthcare, breeding, and much more.

• Do you speak chicken? — learn about basic chicken biology, breeds, and behavior

• Select your chickens — from eggs to chicks to adults, decide which to buy, how many you need, and find the healthy ones

• Take care of a small flock — choose a type of housing, construct a chicken coop, feed your birds, and do housekeeping

• Make more chickens — discover how to mate your chickens, incubate eggs, and hatch and nurture chicks

• Reap the harvest — manage laying hens, collect and store eggs, butcher meat birds, and package and store meat

Open the book and find:

• Basic chicken-keeping requirements

• Misconceptions about chickens explained

• Top tips for healthy chickens

• Do-it-yourself housing ideas

• The best feed for your birds

• Advice on controlling pests and predators

• Hints for optimal egg production

• Information on raising meat birds

• Answers to combat laying issues

See all Editorial Reviews

• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (August 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470465441
• ISBN-13: 978-0470465448
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Introduction.

Part I: Choosing Chickens.

Chapter 1: The Joy of Chickens.

Chapter 2: Basic Chicken Biology and Behavior.

Chapter 3: A Chicken Isn’t Just a Chicken:Your Guide to Breeds.

Chapter 4: Buying Chickens.

Part II: Housing Your Flock.

Chapter 5: Choosing Your Housing Type.

Chapter 6: Designing and Constructing a Coop.

Chapter 7: Coop, Sweet Coop: Furnishing and Housekeeping.

Part III: Caring for Your Flock: General Management.

Chapter 8: Feeding Your Flock.

Chapter 9: Controlling Pests and Predators.

Chapter 10: Keeping Your Flock Happy and Healthy.

Chapter 11: Handling Health Problems.

Part IV: Breeding: From Chicken to Egg and Back Again.

Chapter 12: Mating Your Chickens.

Chapter 13: Incubating Eggs and Hatching Chicks.

Chapter 14: Raising Chicks.

Part V: Special Management Considerations.

Chapter 15: Managing Layers and Collecting Eggs.

Chapter 16: Raising and Butchering Meat Birds.

Part VI: The Part of Tens.

Chapter 17: More than Ten Tips for Keeping Healthy, Stress-Free Chickens.

Chapter 18: More than Ten Misconceptions about Chickens, Eggs, and So On.

Index.

I have been researching the raising of chickens endlessly lately now that we picked up some baby silkies who are happily chirping in their brooder. (We are urban chick farmers and the 3rd homeowners in our small city neighborhood to have a flock, interestingly enough)

Being a city girl, I didn't have any experience in this chicken raising stuff...yet, being an animal lover and lover of research, I insist on doing it perfectly and will research it until I do.

And this helped tremendously.

While researching on the net and talking to chicken "experts" at feed stores, it amazed me how much misinformation was out there. Some said line the brooder with newspaper. (The book says no, but better yet, it listed the best ideas for liner and litter in order of preference and why). I quickly found out from REAL experts how bad newspaper is for the chicken's legs and what problems often develop from slick surfaces. Some said you can use a regular lightbulb for heat then I found out how much lig including some deformities in growth/leg problems.

So, with all the confusion I found out there from old wives tales to people who throw lots of hens in a too-hot unventilated coop old-school style without thinking of the BIRD, I ordered this book to get some real facts in one place.

I learned a lot. This will even tell you what's bad to feed them from your scraps...such as no moldy bread, bad potato parts, no avocado etc. and why.

This tells you how to select and care for your chickens through all ages and, unfortunately, even for those raising them for meat how to kill them. I DID NOT read that chapter. But I guess if someone is going to do that, at least it tells you how to do it right I suppose.

Good advice on predators...

The reason I love THIS book more than the many others I've read about raising chickens is that it made me realize I'm not ready to keep chickens right now. The book honestly lets readers know how much work (as well as how much joy) is involved in raising healthy chickens and keeping them comfortable and safe from predators. It's a super-comprehesive book that describes exactly what keeping chickens entails (Where will I put the chicken manure and how will I carry it to that spot every time I clean the coop? Exactly how can I figure out the best location and construction for a coop? What equipment will I need? How much time and money will this cost?, etc..).

If you are thinking of getting chickens, read Chapter 1 of this book "The Joy of Chickens;" especially pages 13-14 "Assessing Your Capabilitiues: Basic Chicken Care and Requirements: Time, Space, Money." Keeping any animal is a huge responsibility. Chapter 1 is enlightening in terms of what you can expect. If you decide chickens are for you after reading Chapter 1, the rest of the book will be an invaluable reference book for you.

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