Books

[rickson]

I'm new to the chicken raising game.

We'll be raising a few medium size hens for laying some yummy eggs!!!

Anyone have any suggestions for a good book to cover:

Feed
Bedding
Brooding

Thanks in advance!

 

[rancher hicks]

I have always suggested going to your local public library and taking out every book on poultry/chickens you can. You will find old and new ideas on chickens and sure to find one that you like better than others. All have different styles of writing. Some are more indepth with information covering the business side and medical information. While this site is helpful there can be misinformation. My personal favorite is "Living With Chickens" by Jay Rossier. Not just for the information but writting style. I also suggest subscribeing to Back Yard Poultry Magazine. If you can get it or afford it Practical Poultry magazine the UK version. At $7.50 an issue you might want to share the cost w/ a friend. Happy chicken keeping , Rancher

 

[LAMchop]

Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens is always a good one. I refer to it often, and the new and improved edition is out now!

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Ditto what LAMchop said, there's several good books out there but you won't go wrong with this one....good book.

If you have a good library close by you could follow rancher hicks lead and see what they have to offer. If you find one you especially like there then you might order it. There is so much information in some of them that you're going to want your own copy to keep on hand.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[catdaddy66]

Check out your local library. I also got gifts of Raising Chickens for Dummies and Storey's Guide to Raising Poultry. Personally I liked the Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens better but both have tons of good knowledge. I am still scanning the horizon for other titles that I will critique here ASAP!

 

[yoker]

Quote:
I agree too.

 

[nsanywhere]

I like the Hobby Farm series - available on Amazon

 

[patandchickens]

Obviously there is the "Raising CHickens for Dummies" book coauthored by Rob Ludlow, owner of this very forum

If you look around BYC you should see adverts for it. I haven't read it but have leafed through at a bookstore and it seems useful

- and more "backyard, very small flock, pet-type chicken" oriented than Gail Damerow's book, which is also quite good of course.

Really though I would suggest reading as many different books as you can lay your hands on. Libraries, and interlibrary loan, can be a real help. I have not seen a chickenkeeping book yet that is really all that broadminded and talks about the pros and cons of different approaches as much as one might wish; so it is very useful to read a lot of different authors' versions of the subject and you can kind of triangulate and make up your own mind what to try and what to rule out

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[hinkjc]

In addition to what has already been recommended, the Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow has everything you need to know about raising fowl..and then some.

 

[Lensters]

Quote:
I will second this book, it is essential to have when you run into problems. But before you get your first bird I would suggest Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds by Carol Ekarius so that you know what breed you want to get. There are a couple of errors in the book so you will want to do a little research too. Here are some links...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/breed-chart - this has a few errors as well

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html - error free as far as I can tell