Chicken Book List?

[BobTarte]

Hi, Chickerdoodle. I joined the forum a few months ago when we were having problems with one of our hens and I was trying to figure out what has going on. I appreciate the kind words about my books. Please look for me on Facebook.

Rebelcowboysnb, what happened was that I noticed a spike in sales on Amazon this morning, so I googled (as you guessed) and found two places of the Web where "Enslaved by Ducks" was being mentioned. I always like to check in and thank people who talk about my books... even if they don't like them!

 

[larkflying]

I like an old book called, The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald It is about a family that moves to a small chicken farm on the Olympic Peninsula. It's local for me, and extremely funny. I think it is a biography.

We also love Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock by Judy Pangman It has a great variety of coops, from stylish local city coops to huge pastured poultry models. It has varying levels of description, but we loved the diagrams and drawings, and the photos of the coops were great! I also liked the variety of sizes.

For ducks and geese, I enjoy Ducks and Geese in Your Backyard by Rick and Gail Luttmann -- it has a lot of good info, but it is also written with a dry sense of humor that appeals to me.

I agree with all the above books as well -- we have some, and have borrowed others from the library.

 

[Urban Chaos]

any suggestions for books that are primarily about the incubating process?

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I dont think anyone has put out a book just on incubation but it does deserve one all to its self.

 

[Mama Hen Chris]

Quote:
I have seen The Egg and I movie featuring Fred McMurray and Claudette Colbert...good movie. Ma and Pa Kettle are also in the movie. I want to get the book one day. It is a biography but the movie's ending was changed from the book.

 

[Gardengirl 2011]

larkflying, The Egg and I is one of my all time favorite movies! I'd LOVE to find the book! The movie was the introduction to Ma and Pa Kettle.

 

[gaited horse]

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I have read both of them and really liked them. Welcome to BYC

 

[gaited horse]

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I loved that book I drooled over every coop.

 

[BobTarte]

Gardengirl, It's easy to find used copies of "The Egg and I" for as little as $1 online. And it is indeed a very good book, as are Betty Macdonald's other memoirs.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
http://www.avianpublications.com/items/breeding/itemD02.htm

Not a very big book, but I found it very educational.

And some more books in response to Rebel's thread:

Chickens in Your Backyard: A Beginner's Guide, by Rick and Gail Luttmann. Rodale Press

The first poultry book I ever bought way back when and for the newcomer backyard poultry keeper it's still pretty good.

Successful Poultry Management, Morley A. Jull.
Poultry Breeding and Management, James Dryden.
The Dollar Hen, Milo Hastings.

If you're interested in commercial production from back in the day when grass-raised, free-ranged birds were the commercial norm then the above three books are well worth looking for. They are all long out of print, but except for The Dollar Hen can still be found in an out-of-print books search. Hastings' book has been reprinted and can be bought through Amazon or from www.plamondon.com.

Feeding Poultry, by G. F. Heuser.

If ever you take a serious interest in mixing your own poultry feed this is a great book to use to do it. It was written late enough that we had a pretty complete understanding of poultry nutrition by then, but far enough back that everything had not yet gone completely over to battery cages. You can find valuable info on the value of good range, and many kinds of various feedstuffs some of which you may have available to you.

Turkey Management, Stanley Marsden.

Obviously this last one is just about turkeys, but it was pretty much THE turkey book in its day and even a lot of modern day non-confinement turkey management info to be found on the net today is based on what was in that book. The downside is that it does not seem to have ever been printed in real quantity so it's hard to find a copy at a price that anyone can afford. Fortunately Cornell University has a digital copy of the first edition you can view and read here: http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=3317008.

If I can think of it I have some more titles at the house I'll recommend. These are just the ones I can recall off the top of my head.