Customer Reviews

Chickens In Your Backyard: A Beginner's Guide

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is the one book I found most helpful when I started raising my flock of laying hens. I can run to this book when I have a question or concern, and the information is usually there. Thanks to this book, I have not only raised many a hen from 2 day old chick, but hatched out my own broods in an incubator. This is the book I recommend when I am helping others get started raising hens, and they have had equal success. The majority of the book is information on how to care for your birds, rather than focusing on the butchering of chickens. The one (yes, only one) chapter on butchering is straight forward. It approaches the subject knowing the beginner butcher will be a bit squeemish and nervous, and takes that into account. Many other poultry books read like instruction manuals, but this book is written with humor and sensitivity. That is what makes it a great read, as well as an instructional one.

We live on a hobby farm in Minnesota, and this is the book that got me started with my flock of happy hens. It's written in plain, down-to-earth English for the rank beginner who wants to keep chickens on a small scale for eggs, meat, or just the pleasure of having them around. It's especially nice for the free-run flock, with instructions on choosing breeds, raising chicks, housing, nutrition, hatching your own chicks under broody hens or in an incubator, etc. A must-have for anybody who is thinking about keeping chickens. Lots of humor, too!

I started my backyard flock with only this book for reference. It's got really good information and is a really fun read - lots of humor mixed in with the great information. If you're thinking about starting a small flock and you're a beginner, this is the book you should buy. It's got great information including a chapter with basic poultry terminology, info on hatching chicks, chicken diseases, raising chickens for eggs or for meat, and a whole lot more. And it's all written in everyday English that even a girl from the city like me can understand. Buy this book!

Just moved to a two-acre home in Alaska, and the dirt yard reminded me of the old folks -- and their chickens -- back home. Memories are great; it all seemed easy to a child back there. But could I really do it: Raise my own little flock in North Pole, Alaska, where it's dry dry dry and the temperatures can dip to -50 and stay there in the winter?

The answer is yes, and thank goodness for this book and for those who reviewed it before me. I now have enough information to know how to talk to poultry folk in their lingo, what questions to ask, how to build a proper coop, which breeds are better for eggs and which for fryers, what to do about vermin and predators... In short, everything I needed to convince me that I can do it. And that I want to do it.

No wonder this book is a classic.

Got my biddy box ready... Goin' to the feed store.

This book is good for the beginner. However, I would strongly suggest having another reference in addition to this book. It was written in 1976, and some of the information is out of date (incubator temps and such). The strengths of this book are that it's easy to read, has a seperate chapter on roosters, and that they share thier own experiences and their own blunders. This book is a decent place to start, easy to read, and under a 150 pages. Not bad. I own "Keep Chickens" by Kilarski, "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens", and "Chickens" by Sue Weaver as well. Storey's Guide To Raising Chickens" by Gail Damerow is more complete and up to date, but it's also more time consuming to get the information. "Keep Chickens" by Kilarski and "Chickens" by Sue Weaver are more up to date versions of this book, and Sue Weavers book in my opinion is superior of the three. If I had it to do over again I would have bought Sue Weavers book for getting up to speed, and Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow for more in depth information after I read Weavers book. Trust me I've looked at a lot of chicken books, and done a lot of reading. This book is decent, and it will give some good information, and I'm not sorry I bought it. However, there are better books out there. Gail Damerow and Sue Weaver have superior products in my opinion.

I am completely baffled by most of the other reviews I have read here about this book. I have found this book to be the least helpful of the four "Raising Chickens" books I have recently read.

We just got started raising Chickens on 5/1/2002 and were complete beginners with no prior knowledge of what we were doing. I purchased a few books and borrowed a few from the library. I am glad I borrowed this one instead of buying it. Unlike the others I have read, there is almost no detail included in this text. While the reading is somewhat entertaining, I found very little useful information in it. Most of this book contains very general information at best. A much better reference for beginners is "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens." It is significantly more complete and yet still an easy read. I would not recommend buying this book.

This book is a must for those new to the world of backyard chicken raising.It presupposes no prior knowledge, is written in an entertaining and step-by-step style, and will have you laying eggs in days! Everything is here: From building coops to chicken behavior, it's all here. If your wondering where to start then read on....

I am an amateur chicken enthusiast, who has contemplated raising my own chickens for eggs. This book helped to introduce me to the issues involved in raising chickens. It defines chicken terms, talks about chicken health issues (cures and prevention), and really makes it seem possible for anyone to raise chickens in their backyard.

This is the first book on chickens we ever bought. It was after seeing the late actor Jimmy Stewart on the old Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and hearing him talk about the small flock of laying hens he had at his place in the heart of Beverly Hills that we checked the local zoning laws where we lived at the time and found we to could have hens. And then we got involved in 4 H with our son and they in turn recommended this book.

It is by far the BEST book for anyone who has a small piece of property and zoning laws that permit keeping chickens. It discusses everything you need to know from the simply housing they need, the feed and water issues and how not to upset the neighbors.

So if you are interested in having a small flock get the book and get informed before you get the chickens.

I loved this book!! It is full of good information, keeps you interested, and has plenty of humor in it. The book is easy to read and is detailed on all of the important aspects of raising chickens, whether for food, eggs, or just for fun. I enjoyed every chapter and keep it close at hand for reference.