Best books to read

[YankeeHen]

Hello!
As winter is approaching, I’d like to catch up on my chicken reading. Does anyone have a book or books they recommend for general chicken care? I’m a newbie who needs to learn all the basics. Thanks!

 

[sylviethecochin]

Storey's guide is probably the easiest to find, and well-recommended. I'd get it from your local library and read it before deciding if you want to buy it for yourself, though.

 

[chickens really]

Personal experience and friends are the best teachers. No two flocks are the same. I don't own any Chicken or Duck books.....Best wishes...

@Brahma Chicken5000
He might know of good books?..

 

[aart]

From another thread asking the same thing:

As much as I love books, I read constantly, I would not bother to buy any chicken books.
Well, I own two... Ussery and Damerow both good reads but do contain some 'not so great' and/or outdated info. I have not cracked them but a few times since the initial reading.
Try your library, we have state wide borrowing here and can get about any title.
Better to read a borrowed copy before buying, IMO.
I read a couple dozen and very few were worth reading, let alone owning.

I spent the winter before building coop reading this and other chicken forums.

This website has given me more information than any book.
I read a lot of the threads and learn a lot.

This^^^ but bring your grains of salt.
I learned more here too, by readingreadingreading for hoursandhoursandhours.
I took notes and saved links in a word doc(you can search it) and a spreadsheet with headers like coops, roosts, nests, dosages, predators, etcetcetc.
But I am old school, laptop with 'real' programs installed for these tasks.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Check out Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow.

 

[OkieChickenGal]

I agree with @Brahma Chicken5000,

 

[ChickenLeg]

Not a chicken book but Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is a good book, very short and quick read, I listened to the audio book the other day was only 5 hours long, but I can tell I missed a lot so I have a paperback copy beside me waiting to be read.

 

[Biddybot]

I know you asked for books on chicken care and a couple of other folks already recommended a couple I like myself. BUT, if you want to read a good fictionalized story about the life of a chicken and one of his mortal enemies, try The Killers: The Story of a Fighting (Rooster) and a Wild Hawk by Daniel P Mannix. Googling 'animal books the killers' should bring up the link to the kindle edition that's currently available on amazon, and visiting that link will give you the chance to look 'inside' the book and read much of the first chapter to see if you like it. The rooster fighting stuff doesn't go for too long, by the way, in case you find that sort of thing objectionable...most of the story actually takes place on a farm and in the wild. This is about the only decent fictional novel I've ever read about a chicken...any chicken. The same author also wrote The Fox and the Hound, which Disney adapted years ago into the usual much schmaltzier version they deemed more appropriate for kids, and that book, in its original form, is pretty decent too.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I also recommend buying The Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow.