I am a book junkie too and am looking for one (or two) good books on chickens that will take me past the first year. I have had all the books out of the local library and have looked at bn but most of them seem written more for beginners. I want something to reference not just pretty pictures(ok I like pretty pictures) and reciepes. Are there any good books worth tracking down? Right now Storeys? Seems the the best. On that note any magazines worth the price? Most of the ones I've seen are put out by hobby farms or Mother Earth news?
Harvey Ussery: The small scale chicken flock keeper. If your library doesn't have it, they can get it for you. go on line, and look at some options, and ask your library to order them in for you.
Poultry Press . they have a website. it is the Premier newspaper for the Poultry fancy. They have excellent articles. HTTP://www.chickencolours.com Van Dort's website. Her book on "the genetics of chicken colours-the basics' is the go to book for color genetics . the first half of the book is great explanations. the second half of the book is a color encyclopedia of chicken Colors captioned by their genetic formulas. A must have for color breeding. she has also written a book called 'the genetics of chicken extremities" this book covers the genetics of everything but color . a bit more scientific but sounds like what you're looking for. I own the colours book and I'm looking forward to getting the extremities book. well worth every penny. Greg Brereton's book, " 21st century Poultry Breeding" is also a great book. Plus a couple of books written by breeders in your chosen breed. If you have Deep Pockets and you're looking for the best that would be Carefoot's , "creative poultry breeding'. this book has been out of print .it has been reprinted by Veronica Mayhew in England ( website) .it's price runs about the same as the van dort book . it's considered a classic and a go to volume for serious breeders. Also Crawford's, ' Poultry Breeding and Genetics". Personally I would read both the Carefoot and the Crawford books with the new van dort extremities book . Tho full of extremely valuable information and coveted by serious breeders, the first two are not current any more. the third book ,the Van Dort, is current and will clear up any questions you might have from the first two. Best, Karen
Really the only one worth buying...most the rest are fluff, taking advantage of the BYC fad market. I checked a bunch out of the library and Ussery the only one worth the time......and even his techniques contain flaws. Take them all with a grain of salt, some more than others.
