A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens, 2nd Edition: How to choose and care for your first chickens
208
A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens, 2nd Edition: How to choose and care for your first chickens
208Paperback
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Overview
This practical book is ideal for the complete beginner. Even someone who has never kept animals before should be able to follow the clear, detailed guidance that is given at every stage. It includes:
· Choosing the right chickens and housing for your garden size
· Exploring useful equipment, such as poultry feeders and drinkers
· Routine care for your chickens, including what to feed them on
· Outfoxing the fox - and other predators
· What to do with all those eggs!
· Dealing with parasites and ailments
· Broody hens and hatching eggs
With true-life portraits of chicken keepers, little known facts, and helpful and informative personal anecdotes, A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens, 2nd Edition is an easy and enjoyable read for anyone interested in keeping chickens.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781472140449 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Little, Brown Book Group |
| Publication date: | 03/20/2018 |
| Pages: | 208 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Preface xiii
1 Before Your Chickens Come Home to Roost: Planning for Your First Chickens 1
Can You Keep Chickens? 1
Finding Out about Chickens 4
Chickens as Pets 4
Key Points 5
Kids' Corner 6
2 What Really Goes On at a Hen Party? Understanding Chicken Behaviour 8
The Intelligent Chicken 8
Establishing the Pecking Order 8
Scratching and Foraging 9
The Importance of Dust-Bathing 10
Laying Eggs 11
What Happens at Bedtime? 12
Providing Shade and Shelter 12
How Do Chickens Get On with Humans? 12
Key Points 13
Kids' Corner 14
3 Feathering the Nest: Where and How Will Your Chickens Live? 16
Keeping Chickens in a Small Garden 16
Keeping Chickens in a Medium-Sized Garden 18
Keeping Chickens in a Large Garden or Smallholding 20
Considering How Many Chickens You Can Accommodate 23
Positioning the Chicken House 23
Different Types of Chicken Housing 24
What to Look for When Buying Chicken Housing 25
Scenarios of Keeping Chickens 30
Key Points 32
Kids' Comer 34
4 Birds of a Feather: Choosing the Right Chickens for the job 36
Deciding Between Pure-Breeds and Hybrids 36
Selecting Your Hybrids 38
Pure-Breed Chickens 40
Picking Pure-Breeds 42
Finding Out More 48
Key Points 49
Kids' Corner 50
5 Buying the Eggstras: What Else Will You Need? 52
Choosing a Poultry Feeder 52
Choosing a Poultry Drinker 55
Storing Feed 58
Providing a Dust-Bath 58
Giving Chickens Some Fun in their Run 59
Selecting Bedding 59
Keeping Things Clean 60
Putting Together a First Aid Kit 60
Using Automated Equipment 61
Key Points 62
Kids' Corner 63
6 Chicken Feed: Organizing the Daily Rations 65
Feeding Scraps 65
Buying Feed 66
Supplying Grit 67
Providing Green Food and Grass 68
Feeding Grain 68
Adding Supplements 69
Giving Treats and Extras 69
Checking the Drinking Water 70
Feeding Chickens 70
Avoiding Poisonous Plants 71
Key Points 72
Kids' Corner 73
7 How Do You Cock-a-Doodle-Doo? Buying Your Chickens and Introducing Them to Their New Home 75
Deciding How Many to Buy 75
Mixing Different Breeds 75
Choosing to Buy Chickens, Chicks or Eggs 76
Chicken Shopping 77
Bringing Your Chickens Home 80
Settling Your Chickens in Their New Home 81
Adding to Your Flock 85
Key Points 86
Kids' Corner 87
8 Doing the Hen-Housework: Caring for Your Chickens 89
Establishing a Daily Routine 89
Doing the Weekly Chores 91
Remembering Other Tasks 93
Arranging Cover for Holidays 98
Key Points 99
Kids'Corner 100
9 Outfoxing the Fox: Predators 102
The Fox 102
The Badger 103
Mink and Otters 103
Stoats, Weasels, Polecats, Ferrets and Pine Martens 104
Birds of Prey 105
Crows, Magpies, Jackdaws and Rooks 105
Rats and Squirrels 105
Trapping Responsibly 106
Domestic Cats and Dogs 106
Humans 106
Keeping Your Chickens Safe 107
Key Points 107
Kids' Corner 108
10 You Can't Make an Omelette Without Breaking Eggs: Eggs and What to Do with Them 110
Creating the Wonderful Egg 110
Finding Alien Eggs 113
Where Are the Eggs? 116
Eggs-Travaganza! Dealing With All the Eggs 117
Making Use of Your Eggs 122
Key Points 127
Kids' Corner 128
11 In Fine Feather: Dealing with Parasites and Ailments 132
Looking for Problems 132
Appreciating the Causes of Disease 133
Combating External Parasites 134
Recognizing Infectious Diseases 139
Heart Disease 143
Respiratory System 143
Digestive Problems 143
Egg-Laying Problems 144
Treating Wounds and External Problems 145
Understanding Feather Loss 146
Looking After Yourself! 147
Key Points 148
Kids' Corner 150
12 Having Something to Crow About: Cockerels 152
Aggression in Cockerels 152
Deciding Whether You Need a Cockerel 153
Hatching Cockerels 153
Producing Table Birds 154
Key Points 155
Kids' Corner 156
13 Don't Count Your Chickens Before They've Hatched: Managing Broody Hens and Hatching Eggs 158
Recognizing a Broody Hen 158
Dealing with Unwanted Broodiness 159
Deciding to Hatch Some Eggs 160
Matching with a Broody Hen 161
Using Artificial Incubation 166
Key Points 170
Kids' Corner 172
14 Chickening Out: When Chickens Die 174
Calling it a Day 174
Disposing of the Body 175
How Long Do Chickens Live? 175
Losing a Pet 176
After a Loss 176
Key Points 176
Kids'Corner 177
15 A Year in the Life: Appreciating the Changing Seasons 179
Spring 179
Summer 179
Autumn 180
Winter 181
Kids' Corner 182
Glossary 184
Further Reference 188
Acknowledgements 191
Photo Credits 191
Index 192