Chickens In Your Backyard: A Beginner's Guide

This book is very informative n will be helping in me taking care of my few yard chickens. Will have to give a better review as I read more and learn what's in it.

This time last year my feet took me into a farm supply store and I emerged with four newly hatched chicks and a head full of advice from the sales lady. A day or two later I bought this book and read it from cover to cover. It has been my main source of information. Today I have four tame, happy, sociable, laying, free-range hens who just survived a bitterly cold winter where I had to dig their coop out of the snow several times. They are now rejoicing in their first adult spring. We've had our challenges - a frostnipped foot, two went broody, and one grew up with a crooked back - but everyone is fine now. So I'd say this book has pointed the way to success for us. There is a lot of very specific advice, but what I got overall is a sense of how much leeway there is with raising chickens, what matters and what doesn't. It also gave me an appreciation for the character of chickens, which is essential if you're going to enjoy them. And I do. I have to admit that I'm a hopeless farmer and mine have become outdoor pets. I have actually woken up from a nap in a garden chair to find a snoozing hen in my lap. But their eggs are magnificent. I'd suggest reading the book BEFORE getting chicks, but if you don't it will still work out.

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 It was written in 1976, and some of the information is out of date (incubator temps and such).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 just finished reading this book and I thought it was great. There was a lot of easy to understand information and it was a fun read. I will be getting my chicks soon and I feel a whole lot better about raising them since I finished reading this book. I do wish that it had a little more info about building the coop ect but overall I was very pleased. Toward the very end around page 135 the pages got all out of order. I had to flip back and forth trying to figure out the order. Frustrating! Overall, I would recomend this book.

The information in this book is very useful, though obviously outdated, as it was published in the '70s. It is very easy to read and comprehend for a first time chicken keeper. But some of the advise, on where to look for chicks and where to get vet care for them, isn't very relevant for nowadays. This is a good book to start reading first, then supplement with other more modern books on the subject.One big gripe about this book: Page 141 (one which type of chicken to get) missing completely and pages 139 through the end are all mixed up. I returned the first book I bought in hopes that it was just a printing fluke for this one copy, but the replacement print had the same error.

I left this book with still many questions. It is written by a couple who are true veterans of chicken raising & that have been raising chickens for many years. I'm sure they know more than what is written in this book, but for someone like me who wants to raise a few chickens but has never even fed them, I still had some unanswered questions and I'm sure there are questions I have not even thought of at this point.

This book gives me all the information I wanted about starting and keeping a small flock of chickens without being overwhelming. Published in the 1970's by Rodale Publishing, it is exactly what I expected. I feel like I have a good grounding on the subject of chickens and will more easily know what to research for deeper information on specifics should I need it.The book is written in a personable style without being unnecessarily wordy.

This is an entertaining and informative little book for beginners.I am now shopping for a more comprehensive book, but learned a lot of basics in this one, as well as enjoying the nice photos. There are several coop plans, and a (too short) section on breeds.I think the book will be especially helpful for people who live in the North, as it includes a lot of advice on cold weather breeds and conditions. I live in Alabama, so am looking for a book that concentrates more on keeping the poultry from dying of heat prostration!:P

Tells you about chickens. . . .. what else can I say! Easy read and very formative.

I bought this book because of the reviews. I'ts as good as they say. Everything you need to know for first time hen keepers.

Good book, plenty of basic information. I have referred to it on several occasions. I would recommend it to people starting out with chickens, among a small collection of other books.

Another title for really beginners, like me! It helped me to start my research about chickens.

Easy to follow information. I like the book. Good starter