Bottom line: This could have been a great book, but it reads like a first draft -- almost as rough as raw notes from the authors' field notebook. It is useful reading to get ideas about how to put this system to work for you.
My family is going to get a handful of egg layers and I heard about the chicken tractor concept and wanted to get the authoritative guide. I was hoping for (a) building instructions and rough plans, (b) how the system is best used, and (c) basic care of the animals. I didn't expect a comprehensive guide to animal care, I'll get a separate book for that.
The book covers all three of the above areas.
Chapter 8, "How to Build Your Custom Chicken Tractor" has a sequence of instructions, a bill of materials, and a couple of diagrams. The diagrams could be better, and there could be more. A third of a page is devoted to a picture of how to square two boards using the 3-4-5 rule, but the next page of seven construction steps has no pictures at all. There is no (nearby) photograph of the finished product, only some sketches with cartoon chickens. Chapter 4 focuses on straw bale construction techniques (though you can't build a tractor out of bales) with more and somewhat better diagrams but does not have a set of specific construction steps (and I'm not sure it needs one).
Chapter 3, "Chicken Tractor Systems", discusses seven different systems in which the tractor may be used. Not all of the systems are covered evenly: the rotational garden system gets four paragraphs in contrast to the dozen or so pages for the deep mulch system. One "system" is a brief mention of four different hen houses on wheels without any mention of how wheels might be deployed in contrast to the simple tractor he describes later in Chapter 8.
Basic care is scattered throughout the book. Chapter 6, "Keeping Hens in the Chicken Tractor" has some tips about keeping hens happy but doesn't go into much depth. It could be better integrated with the rest of the book: the section on nesting boxes should include details or cross reference to construction techniques for integrating nesting boxes into the Chapter 8 tractor. In 300 pages about "happy hens and healthy soil", there are only two or three pages devoted to nesting boxes, and then there are no diagrams -- just a couple of silly cartoons.
Some info on breed selection would have been nice. Chapter 11, "Give Me That Old-Time Chicken", discusses the fact that some heritage breeds are in danger of extinction. But other than positing that they taste better, they don't give much for hints in selecting a breed that is appropriate for your farm.
Some miscellaneous criticisms:
* Selective use of science makes me suspicious. There are places where the authors cite scientific studies in support of their opinions. There are places where the authors make vague mention of science in support of their opinions. And there are places where the authors mention scientific studies and then dismiss the science based on their opinions.
* The photography is poor -- generally too dark and not well composed.
* Organization is inconsistent. This is a minor point, but some chapters have numbered sections, some have lettered sections, some have no sequence marks -- just section titles, and some chapters are mix and match. Example: Chapter six has sections A, B, C, D, 5. Only A and B show up in the table of contents. Sloppy organization makes it unlikely that this book will be useful as a reference.
* Hordes of typographical/copy errors. Again, a minor point but distracting nonetheless. Example: Page 38 has a diagram/cartoon at the top of the page, titled in large print "Products and Behviors (sic) of a Chicken".
* Poor indexing. Example: the index for "killing cone" references only page 202. But the chapter on processing has multiple references to killing cone. There's a diagram/cartoon on page 209, description of its use on page 216, and thoughts on different types of killing cones including some thoughts on homemade versus commercial on page 217.
* The authors are very repetitive. They could shave 100 pages with better organization and judicious use of cross-references. Example: Chapter 5, "Soil Building with Chicken Tractors" is part rant against the destruction of soil by monoculture farming and part repetition of information mostly found in other parts of the book about the use of tractor systems for improving garden soil.
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