best chicken breed book

[brwadkins]

Hey everyone. Well I've been reading through various posts for the last 45 minutes trying to learn more about my chickens and I have found that there are a lot of really knowledgeable chicken people out there. So, my question is this. What is a great or the best reference for learning about different chicken breeds and how to identify different breeds. Hopefully, the recommended resource will include info on how to tell the difference between pullets and cockerels. We purchased our first chicks this year and I had the hair-brained idea (against my wife's advice not too) to order an assorted straight run. So now I have 24 chicks/young chickens (8 weeks old) and I have no idea what breed or sex they are. Yep, some of us are that crazy.

 

[popsicle]

People are pretty good here if you post a couple pictures.

I would highly recommend looking at books in a bookstore before buying if possible. If you are looking on Amazon, make sure you read through the comments (especially the negative comments) to see if the book will actually have the information you are looking for. I've gotten a few books, one was called "the complete guide to Poultry Breeds"--the title may give the idea that the book will cover all the different breeds with color photos and descriptions. NOT SO. The book has valuable information on raising turkeys, chickens, peafowl, guineas, etc, with brief descriptions of a handful of breeds within the species.

Chickens are a trendy thing to have in the backyard right now, and it seems to me that people are jumping on that bandwagon by publishing a slew of redundant books.

 

[Pele]

Definitely post a picture here, and we'll give you a better idea.

Now for your own personal research, I would suggest Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart, the Breeds and Genetics section of BYC (I believe one of their sticky topics is breeds with photos), and Google anything that catches your interest.

Lots of resources out there just waiting for you!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, is a good starter book. Actually anything by Gail Damerov is good.

 

[TnMama]

I have Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens. It's very helpful! When my DH and I were building our hen house,we had that book out there the whole time. I call it my "Chicken Bible",lol. There is not much specific breed info, but with so much other,you can get breed books. This,IMO is great. I agree with Sonoran Silkies, about anything Storey publishing puts out.

 

[TnMama]

Today at Tractor Supply I bought a copy of

Storey's Illustrated guide to Poultry Breeds. About to sit down and read it. It's got info on all kinds of fowl.

 

[brwadkins]

Okay, I finally got some pictures. We went by our local farm supply but they were sold out of their chickens books/magazines. Must be chicken season or something. So, hopefully some of you can give us some feedback on what we might have. I've been looking on line and I have a lot of ideas I'm just not sure. Thanks.

 

[BlueCamas]

What I'm seeing:
1- Black Cochin pullet
2- White Cornish and Silver Lakenvelder (can't really tell the gender from that pic)
3- Dark Cornish cockerel
4- Ancona (gender depends on how old it is, looks like a cockerel though)
5- White Cochin pullet and EE cockerel

How old are they?

I'm no expert, just guessing

 

[RhodeRunner]

1) Black Cochin
2) Silver Lakenvelder, and White Wyandotte? (can't see the comb type)
3) Dark Cornish
4) Mottled Ancona
5) White Langshan, and Easter Egger