Can you recommend your favourite "keeping chickens" book please?

[ghgirls]

Very sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, but I'm a fairly new hen keeper, and although the internet is absolutely invaluable and has been awfully helpful, I'm an old fashioned kind of girl and really want some good books to be able to refer to with my questions...
So can anybody recommend or suggest the best books about keeping backyard chickens please? There seem to be so many out there, I'd like to know which you experts out there think are the best!
Many thanks and happy days!

 

[Me + Peeps]

I have a really good book called the complete encyclopedia of chickens but i think it might be out of print:/

 

[caralouise1974]

Me + Peeps :

I have a really good book called the complete encyclopedia of chickens but i think it might be out of print:/

Nope, it's still around. I had it given to me at Xmas. It's called 'The Complete Encyclopedia of Chickens' and is by Verhoef and Rijs. It's pretty basic, and is mostly a breed directory, but very useful if you haven't yet decided which breed of chickens to get and how many/how to house/how to feed/etc. If you already have chickens, it's probably a bit too 'entry level.'

My favourite has got to be Gail Damerow's 'Chicken Health Handbook', closely followed by Victoria Roberts's 'Diseases of Free Range Poultry'. I refer to them both time and time again.

I find the Roberts text useful as it is specifically aimed at the UK market, and therefore covers slightly different issues and the suggested treatments are more in tune with the availability of drugs over here (e.g. we don't have coryza over here, or if it is here, it's very hard to come by; and we conversely have far more mycoplasma and treat it very much as an unavoidable but non-serious nuisance; we also don't have this over the counter thing called 'Neosporin' which everyone raves about, as antibiotics of any kind are only available on prescription in the UK).

Another very good entry level text is from the guys at Omlet (of Eglu fame) called 'Keeping Pet Chickens', by Paul and Windham. Very basic though, so please don't bother wasting money on it if you already have chickens.​

 

[skidoo]

Before I got my first chickens, I bought Storey's guide to raising chickens by Gail Damerow.

It had most of the info I needed from building the coop to feeding and diseases. A few things it didnt tell me I was able to research on the internet.

Good Luck

 

[ghgirls]

Thanks very much, your advice about the Damerow being UK based is particularly useful as I have chickens in Colorado at the mo, but am moving back to the UK soon. All the best!

 

[TexasVet]

My favorite by far is Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens. It answered questions I didn't even know I had.

I've got a link to Storey's Guide and 75+ other chicken books that are for sale on Amazon. I like buying them there because I can purchase used (cheaper) books, and I get to review everyone's comments on the book before purchasing it. Some people like pretty pictures, but I prefer information-packed tomes.

http://astore.amazon.com/countchick-20

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.CountryChickens.com, www.PivotalForce.com