Success With Baby Chicks: A Complete Guide to Hatchery Selection, Mail-Order Chicks, Day-Old Chick Care, Brooding, Brooder Plans, Feeding, and Housing [Paperback]

Robert Plamondon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

Baby chicks—can anything be more adorable? So cute, so soft, so helpless! Give your baby chicks a great start by reading the only book devoted to them, Success With Baby Chicks.

Robert Plamondon had to read over a hundred poultry books to discover the sure-fire techniques in Success With Baby Chicks, and he tested them on his farm to find the ones that will work best for you. These techniques were used on millions of family farms in the golden age before factory farming, and were then forgotten—until now! Learn how to choose a good hatchery and a good breed, what kind of heat source to use, how to prepare the brooder area for your baby chicks, what to feed them, and how to avoid common mistakes. All of this is explained so clearly and completely in one slim volume that it has received praise from children, hobbyists, farmers, and poultry scientists alike.

Whether you brood five chicks or five thousand, this is the book for you, because its practical methods work with flocks of any size. And it will save you money. Learn how to build an insulated brooder in two hours for $20, keeping your chicks warmer and more comfortable than with overhead heat lamps, and saving two-thirds of the electricity into the bargain!

Robert Plamondon is a writer/farmer/engineer who has been awarded 17 U.S. patents and raises free-range chickens on his farm in Oregon.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Anyone serious about raising chicks should add this book to their personal library, as an investment well worth it. -- APPPA Grit Magazine, Spring 2003

Everything about raising baby chicks you thought never even existed is now in a 155-page book. -- Capital Press, May 16, 2003

From the Publisher

Success With Baby Chicks was Norton Creek Press' first book and is still our best seller. It encouraged us to go on to publish more of the practical poultry books that drew upon the wisdom and knowledge of experts from the golden age of small-farm poultry, which was roughly 1900-1950.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 155 pages
• Publisher: Norton Creek Press (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972177000
• ISBN-13: 978-0972177009
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #379,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a writer/farmer living in Blodgett, Oregon. In addition to writing manuals for high-tech Silicon Valley products, my wife Karen and I run a small free-range poultry and egg operation.

After realizing that most of the world's best books are out of print and forgotten, we decided to start our own publishing company, Norton Creek Press, to start binging them back, one book at a time.

My Web page at http://www.plamondon.com has quite a bit of useful stuff touching all these topics, especially for the small-scale poultrykeeper.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Fowl Language and a Clucking Good Read, March 20, 2003

By 

M. G. Forbes (Corvallis, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Success With Baby Chicks: A Complete Guide to Hatchery Selection, Mail-Order Chicks, Day-Old Chick Care, Brooding, Brooder Plans, Feeding, and Housing (Paperback)

If you've ever considered raising chickens for hobby or profit,
this is the book you MUST HAVE. Plamondon's prose is eminently
readable, and his advice is spot on target. Drawing from ancient
sources as well as modern, he's produced a definitive guide to
the care and raising of chickens for eggs or meat.

Not some ivory-tower academic, Plamondon provides detailed
guidance to methods of poultry production, using materials and
equipment commonly available to anyone on a budget. You'll make
back the price of this book in just your first brood or two, in
reduced chick mortality alone.

Buy this book. It's good advice from a working farmer who knows
his stuff, and has the writing skills to communicate well.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It doesn't get any clearer than this!, March 21, 2003

By 

Debra Blake (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Success With Baby Chicks: A Complete Guide to Hatchery Selection, Mail-Order Chicks, Day-Old Chick Care, Brooding, Brooder Plans, Feeding, and Housing (Paperback)

Robert Plamondon has packed more great information about chick brooding into this book than can be found in any other current "how to" poultry book. The author combines his own chick brooding experiences with still valuable material from out-of-print poultry books, and shows the reader how to apply it using new technology. It is well illustrated with both old and new photos. This book is a must have if you want to raise chicks. I wish it had been available when I first started, but I have it now!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Advice from a Trustworthy Source, March 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Success With Baby Chicks: A Complete Guide to Hatchery Selection, Mail-Order Chicks, Day-Old Chick Care, Brooding, Brooder Plans, Feeding, and Housing (Paperback)

Plamondon raises chickens and eggs at his successful Oregon pastured poultry operation. He is also a respected member of the internet poultry mail groups.

He has gleaned the best of the past--tried and true information--the almost lost "Secrets of the Past Poultry Masters".The Ohio Brooder plans alone are worth the price of the volume. The guidelines are suitable for all climates and breeds.

The book is strong on up-to-date nutritional and disease control information, and explainations of what does and does not work.

Easy to understand charts and illustrations help the novice and experienced poultry person to grasp the concepts. Plamondon writes in an easy to read, engaging style.

Highly recommended!