Customer Reviews

Keeping Chickens: The Essential Guide

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This short but sweet book is loaded with great advice for the potential first-time chicken-owner, on a wide variety of topics, and has a lot of great pictures to go along with it. Unlike some other books about keeping animals that have historically been used only for food purposes, this book acknowledges and has information for every different type of chicken owner. Some people will be keeping them for meat, some for eggs, some for showing, and some as family pets. And indeed, the majority of the book focuses on the care and upkeep of chickens instead of how to kill a chicken and prepare the carcass. As someone who plans to keep chickens for non-meat reasons, I really appreciated that the reader was not talked to with the assumption that one is only keeping chickens for one reason. Topics covered include the many interesting and beautiful breeds of chicken, chicken anatomy, how to hatch eggs with or without a broody hen, whether one should get a rooster, what to feed them, various types of diseases and conditions they're prone to, what type of housing they need, the ins and outs of eggs, and breeding. There are also a lot of neat trivia tidbits, such as the classification of egg sizes, how the earlobe color usually determines the color of the eggs, and the role chickens and roosters have played in various religions. Concluding the book are chapters about interesting arts and crafts one can make with eggshells and feathers (such as earrings, greeting cards, Chinese lacquer, and cress heads) and some interesting recipes one can make with one's eggs (such as hazelnut meringue roulade and baked eggs in mushroom flans). Overall, it really paints a picture of chickens as a fun, interesting, neat, rewarding, worthwhile pet with so many different functions, whether one intends to keep them to show at 4-H shows, to have a year-round supply of eggs, as pets, or as meat.

I really enjoyed this 2007 British book. It is designed for the family considering keeping a few hens in the garden, and is full of information and things to think about. There are (very) brief descriptions of many breeds. A great strength of this book is it's lovely and varied photography (it even has some nice paintings!). It's very entertaining and a FUN read, even including crafts to do with the kids related to chickens! Overall there's a lot crammed in to 150 pages.

Just don't believe the reviewer who said this could be the one book you buy- definitely not true. This is a fun, clearly written book for "dreaming about chickens"-- you'll still need other resources for more indepth information in different areas if you decide to take the plunge. More comprehensive info can be found in "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" by Gail Damerow. I also really liked "Living with Chickens". "Choosing and Keeping Chickens" is a great guide to choosing the right breed for your family.

I have been keeping laying hens for fifteen years, and this is the best book that I have ever read on the subject of keeping chickens. It is written with the small flock owner in mind. A caring, humane attitude toward these wonderful creatures comes through both the written content and illustrations in the book. The book covers the usual topics, such as the various breeds, housing and cleaning, feeding, breeding, and health care. It also has chapters on the prospective chicken owner's rationale for having chickens, crafts with eggs and feathers, and yummy egg (not chicken meat!) recipes. The color photos and illustrations are spectacular, and the writing is clear and full of useful information.
Whether you are new to chicken keeping or are an experienced flock tender, I highly recommend this book.

This book is loaded with great color photos and tons of good info about how to set-up and maintain a small flock of happy, healthy chickens. Perfect for someone just getting started or, like me, a city gal who just likes to dream about being a farm girl...

Anyone keeping chickens, especially those new to the art, will welcome KEEPING CHICKENS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO ENJOYING AND GETTING THE BEST FROM CHICKENS. It offers an all-in-one guide to chickens, from understanding the specific attributes of over 40 breed types to choosing, buying, and keeping chickens healthy. If only one chicken-keeping guide were chosen for either a rural or urban library, it should be this: the easy tips and color throughout make it both practical and inviting.

I agree with the positive comments about this book by other reviewers, but I wanted to add that the photography and typographical layout of this book are wonderful! It is a great book to have on a coffee table--beautiful and wholesome.

This book has wonderful color photos and great descriptions for the breeds. We have a young daughter so it was helpful to learn which breeds did well with children. I had experience with Rhode Island Reds, but did not know much about any other breeds. It has ideas for housing and even how to tame a chicken. I did not know you could give them raisins! The recipe and craft section was okay, but just general care and the breeds were great!

This book is wonderfully illustrated, covers a wide range of topics, but doesn't delve too deeply into any of them, and also contains segments with craft ideas for eggs and feathers, as well as egg recipes.
I am happy to have this as a refrence.

This is a great book for the whole family with lots of information, pictures, and even craft projects and recipes! My son and his family are new to raising chickens. This is now the book on their living room coffee table!

Of all the books I have seen on raising chickens, this is definitely my favorite. It has wonderful color pictures of all the major breeds with facts concerning their size, hardiness, brood tendencies, whether they are good egg layers, good eating chickens or both, temperament characteristics, a full color picture showing the anatomy of a chicken, a detailed look at when, what and how much to feed your birds, information on various types of chicken coops and how to build them, a look at chicken diseases and how to treat them and more. While it lets you know that raising chickens requires knowledge about the birds you are caring for and a certain amount of work and isn't for everybody, it is definitely doable.