Chicken Keeping
Keeping chickens isn’t exactly cheap if all you want and need is a dozen eggs a week. If you want a creature that is a vibrant part of a backyard or rural set-up then chickens might be a fit in your situation. #awesomechickensituation
These are my hands down top of the list favorite books on chickens. If I could only purchase one book and didn’t have access to the internet, I would purchase The Small-Scale Poultry Flock.
Bloom, Jessi. Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard. Portland; London: Timber Press, 2012.
Who doesn’t love a beautiful and not smelly chicken arrangement with chickens roaming around? The reality for us in San Diego, CA was hawks. We built a lovely three-level hen house. Now in rural Tennessee, the reality is foxes. One time when I was out of town, Dale reported that we lost four, FOUR hens in one go…three foxes! And so, while I love the idea of hens frolicking, the reality is we have chickens for eggs and meat and not feeding wildlife. All that said, there is a lot of good information for flocksters including addressing chickens in the garden.
Damerow, Gail. The Chicken Health Handbook, 2016.
When evaluating flock health, my number one recommendation is a necropsy if you experience flock loss. Either do it yourself or ship it off to the extension office.
Drowns, Glenn. Storey’s Guide to Raising Poultry. North Adams, MA: Storey Pub., 2012.
If you are adding turkey, ducks, or geese to your life, this is a solid and reliable reference.
Foreman, Patricia. City Chicks: Keeping Micro-Flocks of Laying Hens as Garden Helpers, Compost Creators, Bio-Recyclers and Local Food Suppliers. Buena Vista, Va.: Good Earth Publications, 2009.
This book was useful when I was a city chicken keeper. There are some practical considerations of keeping chickens in an urban setting including regulations. It was an amazing day when goats, bees, and chickens were legalized in San Diego. I am amazed that there are small rural towns around where we live where chickens are not permitted.
Hauber, Mark E. The Book of Eggs: A Life-Size Guide to the Eggs of Six Hundred of the World’s Bird Species. Lewes: Ivy, 2014.
I love eggs! I am also an avid birder. Eggs are amazing packets of life. The very first thing that I wanted after we moved to Tennessee—GEESE. A good friend brought goose eggs from his farm in Texas when we lived in Calidornia. Who does this? It made my day and it put geese on the list right after chickens and ducks.
Heuser, Gustave F. Feeding poultry. New York: Wiley, 1950.
This book is an in-depth review of poultry health and feeding.
Ussery, Harvey. The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2011.
This is my go-to reference—it has no match. Looking for reliable information about feeding the flock and kicking bagged feeds to the curb? Looking for way to feed the flock from resources right where you are? Never harvested your own meat birds? Looking to do it all…breed, eggs, and meat? This is the book.
Websites
The Modern Homestead Harvey Ussery’s website has quite a lot of information that goes beyond chicken keeping.