Customer Reviews

City Chicks: Keeping Micro-flocks of Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-reyclers, and Local Food Producers

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I own sixteen (really!) books and have taken five classes about urban chickens. I found City Chicks to be the most inclusive book of all which makes it a great bargain. The author gives incisive information on care, behavior, housing, and even explains how to best use their ah, manure. Foreman discusses different ways you can use your chickens in your garden, what their coops should have as well as delve deeply into the differences between commercial and homemade feeds. Although there are reference books you should not be without, I feel this book should definitely be included in your library if you want to have backyard chickens.

I bought this book a couple of weeks ago, right before my first shipment of day-old chicks arrived. Boy, am I glad I did. The brooding chapter alone told me everything I needed to start my chicks. There is a very good check list of supplies. I took it with me to the Tractor Supply and bought everything I needed. The photos are very helpful; you can see how things are supposed to look. The day-by-day diary was also very helpful. As a first time brooder, I was very nervous, but breaking things down in day-by-day chunks made the process manageable. My friends started chicks last spring. They just followed the generic advice the hatchery sent and ended up with a lot of dead chicks. I haven't had ANY losses. There was one chick dead-on-arrival in the box. The other twenty-four were thriving by the end of the first day.

The other thing I like about Pat's brooder set-up is the hygiene. The aspen shavings keep everything very clean and dry. There is no smell at all.

I heartily recommend this book.

This is a great book and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in raising backyard chickens. Lots of information, and I refer to it often. There's even a section on what steps to take to change the ordinances in your city if chickens are currently not allowed.

This book is not for beginners! I needed very basic questions to be answered, including definitions of terminology. What is a pullet? How many nesting boxes per chicken? This author constantly uses terminology without explaining it, suggests things that I would have no clue where to buy, and doesn't answer my most basic questions. Her criticism of just about every kind of feed especially left me confused about what I CAN feed. It seems that NOTHING is safe. Sheesh!! After reading this book, I felt that raising chickens must be an extremely difficult business and I cannot do it. Fortunately, I know some people who do it and I can see for myself that it is not this complicated. This is a book for people who already know what they are doing and they just want to do it better, and more expensively.

Instead of just criticizing things, she should make straightforward, affirmative recommendations, provide definitions and tell us where to buy some of this weird stuff. But in fact she stops short and just left me feeling clueless.

My big disappointment comes from the author not doing her homework, and filling the book with mis-information.

Examples:

The author goes on about Grain Weevils, and says that you will see "small moth-like bugs flying out of a cupboard or around the feed room" and will see "Web-like lumps of white material on feed and feed bags" if you have them. Weevils are beetles, and in their larval stage leave holes in grains and frass (droppings), and the adults can be seen scuttling around the areas where they feed because, being beetles with heavy bodies, they are not super flyers. Oh, they can fly, but it is not their go-to means of travel. Now, pantry moths are small, flying moth-like creatures whose larvae spin webs and create small cocoons, and they feed on the same kinds of grain products that weevils do.

She talks about beet pulp having a low glycemic index, but does not cite any tests or studies that show that chickens benefit by being fed a low-glycemic-index diet. I wish that instead of doing a rant on the glycemic index, instead she had given a list of the essential nutrients needed for chicken health, and then listed what nutrients each of the feeds and additives she recommends contains, particularly since where I live beet pulp is not easy to come by.

She states that apple cider vinegar "lowers the bird's body acidity, making it harder for certain bacteria, parasites, and yeasts to survive," however never explains how feeding an animal a high-acid substance works to lower the acidity. It does not make sense, and since she does not tell us where she gets these ideas from, it is impossible to fact-check her work. And, yes, I know that there are a lot of people out there who want to sell you their diet plan, or supplements, or what-have-you, who say that apple cider vinegar raises the body's pH, but nothing has ever been shown in tests. I am suspicious of anything I am told by someone trying to get his hand into my wallet.

Although there is an impressive Bibliography, there are no footnotes or references to let us know what ideas come from where inc ase we want to learn more than the few paragraphs she put in her book.

Overall, this is a disappointment. The author has based her opinions on pseudo-science, and not on anything that has been tested by the scientific method. She has strong opinions, and states those opinions like law, instead of as a jumping off place for people who want to develop their own methods, or who live in other areas and do not have the same resources available. I stopped reading about 1/3 of the way through because after finding so many places where she did not do her homework, I stopped trusting what she was saying.

There are better books out there, so unless you just want to read this for entertainment, I suggest giving it a pass.

In City Chicks, Patria Foreman enthusiastically describes the many benefits of keeping backyard chickens beyond providing fresh eggs. Chickens keep gardens free of bugs like ticks and fleas, provide fertilizer, and recycle kitchen waste while reducing garbage going to the landfill. You can enlist their help in keeping down weeds and use controlled fencing to channel their love of scratching to build composted, raised beds for future vegetable gardens. And chickens are friendly and entertaining. There's something quite soothing about the clucking of a few happy hens.

City Chicks can help you select the right breed for your environment and needs; order chicks (or eggs) through the mail; raise them to adulthood; feed and house them; treat injuries and diseases; build appropriate fencing to control their movement; choose watering and feeding equipment; understand chicken psychology, the pecking order and broody hens; protect them from predators; make money with chickens; find other poultry enthusiasts; and lobby for rights to house chickens in cities that don't allow them.

Foreman is unabashedly fond of chickens, and it shows. The book's tone is friendly and often humorous-at times perhaps a little too cutesy. But it made me laugh and yearn for having my own chickens, because I too am a fan. Foreman even includes goofy tricks you can teach your chickens. I fondly remember "hypnotizing" my chickens when I was a child.

City Chicks doesn't provide architectural plans for building coops, but you'll know why perches should all be the same height, why chickens shouldn't sleep in their nest boxes, the importance of a draft- and damp-free environment, and when they need to be locked up.

My main criticism is that the book needs extensive editing. It is filled with typos and punctuation errors, even missing or improperly placed words. The book also lacks organization and is occasionally repetitive. If edited properly, this would be a 5-star book. Highly recommended for its wealth of information.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

This is a fun book. The author clearly loves chickens and knows a lot about them. However, don't try and make this your only chicken book, if you're new to chickens. This book is kind of like having a bunch of long conversations with an expert neighbor. The good information is there, but you really have to dig for it.

The 'Garden Chicks' chapter is tantalizing, but apparently a promo for another book in the works (using chickens as garden helpers). And it is probably the most clearly organized chapter. The book contains a ton of information, from breed types to first aid and health care for chickens, to what you need in a coop, to what to feed them, to even things like tricks the author has taught her chickens.

But it needs some charts and diagrams and maybe some blueprints. You have to go through the whole chapter on coops and take notes to figure out: okay, I need so much square feet per hen, the roost bars need to be so thick, so many nesting boxes, etc etc. Nowhere is it laid out for you quickly and concisely; you really have to read the whole book and take close notes. At which point you're left thinking, maybe I'll just buy a pre-fab coop.

Or, the garden chapter. So many great ideas - but no real good comparison of what is the best way to reach which goal. It's just a confusing mishmash of a huge amount of information that is a long slog to sort through. So I liked the book - but I didn't love it, and I"m stuck buying at least one other book on chicken-keeping before I actually get any chickens. This one simply isn't sufficient.

Hi Amazon Readers!

I really recommend CITY CHICKS by Patricia Foreman. What a wealth of information you will find therein. Pat has all the technical expertise of an academic who lays out the big picture of how chickens can help reduce solid waste on the planet while fertilizing our gardens. She also has the hands on 20 years of experience keeping backyard chickens. The graphics simplify permaculture principals for the lay person and make the book fun. As a pharmacist, she tells you how to care for ypur chickens herbally and with home remedies. Pat Foreman is a Renaissance women who really cares about our feathered friends. You are going to wish she was your neighbor and if you are like me you will not want to lend your copy of City Chicks out to friends. You might want to bring her to your town share her humour and expertise.

City Chicks: Keeping Micro-flocks of Laying Hens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-Recyclers and Local Food Suppliers is an easy-to-follow resource for anyone interested in raising hens, no matter how small the scale. Urban and suburban dwellers can benefit from raising "micro-flocks" of just a few chickens. Hens recycle organic materials from leftover food to grass clippings by eating it; they produce nutritious eggs; they are extraordinarily helpful gardeners that help to naturally control pest infestations (by eating those pesky bugs) and provide compost. They can make great centerpieces of conversation and even pets! City Chicks offers step by step instructions for raising and properly caring for hens, with notable warnings against common mistakes that new chicken keepers make. (It should be noted that roosters are often if not always illegal to own within city limits, and should not be kept since they have more aggressive tendencies than hens and their ceaseless crowing will disturb the peace). Written in plain, no-nonsense language, City Chicks is a "must-have" for any urban or suburban dweller interested in caring for a small-scale or micro-flock. Highly recommended.

I've had this book for a few weeks now and am still working my way through it--I'm not yet a chicken owner, but have hopes of getting my micro flock started next spring. My demographic--mom with young kids, live in town (have just purchased an empty lot adjacent to my home), concerned with local food concerns. This book is written for me! Really great info and I love the fact that the first few chapters deal with soil and composting (even before talking about egg production or raising baby chicks). Great ideas on how to incorporate your flock into your gardens to build up soil and for pest management (day ranging). In fact, the compost aspect of chickens is so exciting, that eggs seem like just a side benefit. If you are new to chickens and wondering about the benefits of a micro flock, I would say this book is for you. I love it!