Backyard Chickens A Practical Handbook To Raising Chickens

The Backyard Chicken Handbook is an authoritative guide, from a fourth-generation chicken keeper, bringing simple yet practical knowledge which covers all aspects of raising healthy and happy chickens. This handbook covers: selecting the perfect chicken breed, feeding your hens, healthy egg laying, chicken behavior (including bullying) and how-to treat common chicken health issues. The handbook is suited to both first time keepers and veterans by providing varying degrees of detail to keep both readers engaged. Full color photos and illustrations throughout provide specific examples of chicken anatomy, health and behavior.

Learn How to Raise Healthy Chickens at Your Backyard When starting a backyard chicken coop, one of the first decisions you'll have to make is which breed of chicken you will raise. Each breed has specific characteristics and can be used for different purposes. In general, though, chicken breeds break down into three groups: egg layers, meat chickens, and dual-purpose chickens. Egg layers produce both a nice quantity and quality of egg. Egg color can also be a factor here. Despite what you have seen in the market, not all chicken eggs are white or brown! Some chickens lay blue, green or pink eggs which may be less desirable. The Leghorn chicken is the best egg layer that is commonly used by beginners. A mature hen can lay up to 280 eggs in one year. The eggs are large, and white to off-white in color. Leghorns tend to be smaller than other backyard chickens, and have a good nature suitable for a backyard flock. Many commercial farms use the Leghorn as their egg layer of choice. WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN IN THIS BOOK Ø What Are the Best Backyard Chicken Breeds? Ø Should you Raise Meat Chickens? Ø Introducing New Chickens to Your Existing Flock Ø Hidden Costs of Raising Chickens Ø Problems You Should Expect with Raising Backyard Chickens Meat chickens, sometimes called fryers or broilers, are raised for the meat they can provide. If meat is what you want from your flock, then size and weight matter. Some good meat chickens, like the New Hampshire Red, can grow up to 9 pounds. You'll also want to make sure the skin color and shape of the chicken breed is suitable for cooking. In general, a nice rounded chicken with yellow skin (under the feathers) is preferred. Most backyard hobbyists want the best of both worlds. This is where the third group, dual-purpose chickens, comes in. Dual-purpose chickens are fair to good egg layers, but can also be raised to a decent size for cooking later in life.

This book is a practical guide to help you raise backyard chickens without breaking the bank. Most persons who intend to start up poultry farming but have limited capital usually have doubts about starting or even delay because of availability of cash. But I'm here to tell you today that you do not need to break the bank! Who said you need to have more than enough before starting your own poultry farm that you so desire? This book contains helpful tips on how to start your own poultry farming with the least money. You will learn various tricks on how to go about raising your chickens on a budget and at the same time ensure that your birds are well taken care of and they do not lack good nutrition or health care. In this educating book, you will have access to the following: Understand the basics of chicken husbandry. How to set a realistic budget for your poultry business. Maximize egg production and meat yields through strategic flock management. How to select low maintenance chicken breeds to suit climate and needs. Breeding and hatching on a budget. Explore low cost effective feeding and how to grow your own feed and have your own garden. Alternative feeding for chickens and how to maximize feed efficiency. Health care and disease prevention: Natural remedies and treatment for common poultry ailments. Repurposing and upcycling materials for coop construction and maintenance. you'll uncover a treasure trove of practical tips, ingenious hacks, and budget-friendly strategies for raising healthy, happy chickens on a shoestring budget. From DIY coop construction using repurposed materials to clever feeding solutions that minimize costs, this book is your roadmap to affordable chicken keeping. Whether you're a novice enthusiast or a seasoned poultry keeper, 'Raising Backyard Chickens' is your ultimate companion for achieving affordable and fulfilling chicken keeping adventures. Get ready to embark on a journey of resourcefulness, ingenuity, and financial savvy - your chickens (and your wallet) will thank you!

Care for your flock with this “practical, common-sense, easy-to-read” guide to chicken keeping, filled with color photos (Michael Darre, PhD, Professor of Poultry Science, University of Connecticut). The Chicken Chick’s Guide to Backyard Chickens takes you through all aspects of small flock care, including feeding, housing, chicken health, and so much more! Known as The Chicken Chick, Kathy Shea Mormino brings her expertise on raising backyard chickens to millions of fans around the world through her wildly popular blog and social media. Now her down-to-earth approach to chicken-keeping is available in book form. Sharing her years of hard-earned experience and collaborations with poultry veterinarians, nutritionists, and professors, she provides simple steps to care for these uncommon pets with confidence. She guides newbie, veteran, and would-be backyard chickeneers through all aspects of small flock care—from getting started to housing, feeding, egg production, health, and beyond.

Your hands-on guide to modern chicken-raising methods Thinking about raising chickens? You've come to the right place! This new edition of Raising Chickens For Dummies provides the most up-to-date, thorough information on the many aspects of keeping chickens in your backyard. Inside, you'll find hands-on, easy-to-follow instructions on choosing and purchasing chickens, constructing housing for your birds, feeding your chickens for optimal health, combating laying issues, controlling pests and predators, optimizing egg production, and much more. Raising chickens on a small scale is a popular—and growing—pastime. If you're interested in keeping chickens as pets or as a source for eggs, Raising Chickens For Dummies gives you plain-English explanations of everything you need to know to about caring for chickens. Inside, you'll learn about basic chicken biology, breeds, and behavior, which chicken breed is best for you, how many you need, ways to spot healthy chickens, how to build a chicken coop, best practices for mating your chickens, how to incubate eggs, how to hatch and nurture chicks, manage laying hens, collect and store eggs, and butcher meat birds. Offers practical advice on choosing and purchasing chickens Helps you construct the right housing for your chickens Provides tips on feeding and caring for your chickens Includes top tips for raising healthy chickens Whether you're a first-time poulterer or you've been raising chickens for years, this comprehensive guide provides practical how-to advice for keeping chickens in virtually any backyard. Raising Chickens For Dummies (9781119675921) was previously published as Raising Chickens For Dummies (9781118982785). While this version features a new Dummies cover and design, the content is the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product.

Practical how-to advice for keeping chickens "For me, raising chickens, for eggs and meat, has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of our family farm. I am a great admirer of "chicken whisperer" Pammy Riggs, and with her two co-authors she has produced an admirably thorough guide to enjoying the pleasures and avoiding the pitfalls of keeping chickens. Get the book, and take the feathery plunge!" - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Keeping Chickens For Dummies provides you with an introduction to all aspects of keeping chickens, from constructing a hutch to the correct feeding regime. It offers expert advice straight from the River Cottage ‘Chicken Whisperer', so whether you're looking to raise chickens for eggs, meat, or just the entertainment value and fun - Keeping Chickens For Dummies is the perfect place to start. Keeping Chickens For Dummies: Shows you how to keep chickens in different conditions Offers guidance on choosing and purchasing chickens Gives great step-by-step advice on constructing the right housing Provides expert advice on how to feed and care for your chickens

Are you a lover of chicken farming and are looking for a simplified guide to help you raise healthy and happy herds for egg and meat purposes? If this is you, then continue reading… Raising chickens can be several things; it can be fun, rewarding, and therapeutic especially if you are a beginner, and a little bit nerve-wracking. There is just a lot of information about how to raise chickens and it can be quite challenging to go through it all to figure out what is right and wrong without proper direction. Why Raise Chickens? Why would anyone want to raise chickens? Well, given how crazy the past year has been due to the pandemic and the resultant shortages in food, most people are now opting to raise chickens for their own food. For some other persons, raising chickens can be a profit-making venture if they decide to sell the eggs the hens lay or even butcher the chickens to produce meat they can sell. Raising chickens can also be a source of fertilizer, i.e., if you are an advocate of a greener home, having chickens in your backyard that you can move from place to place to fertilize several areas of your property can help you to cut down costs on organic fertilizer. Other non-monetary reasons for raising chickens can be for fun, or as a way to educate your kids about responsibility and looking after other living creatures. In this definitive guide, The Big Book of Raising Chickens for Beginners, we have assembled all you need to start raising chickens and caring for your birds in a simplified manner. However, this process gets easy once you have laid your hands on this book. Here are some highlights of areas covered in this book: · The terms and terminologies commonly used in the chicken farming business. · The most common breeds of chicken that you can be breed for meat and eggs. · What to look out for when buying chicks or chickens. · Housing types for your chickens, and the factors to evaluate when building your chicken coop. · How to protect your chickens from common predators, such as raccoons. · What to feed and not feed your chickens and the available type of chicken feed. · How to safely breed your chickens naturally and artificially, and how to properly handle the eggs. · How to butcher chickens for their meat and the proper cleaning and storage guidelines. And so much more! Sounds interesting already right? So what more are you waiting for? Get this book RIGHT NOW to start raising healthy and happy chickens

Are you looking for a simple guide to raising backyard chickens? Do you want simple and effective tips for finding the right breeds for your backyard flock? If your answer is yes then this book, Backyard Chickens, is just what you have been looking for. This is a beginner-friendly guide that will take you through the basics of raising chickens, including: Things to consider before getting chickens Where to buy your chickens What breeds are best for different purposes It has handy tips on what to look for when buying chicks for your backyard. There is plenty of information on how to identify healthy birds to ensure that you only buy the best stock for your backyard. Backyard Chickens goes into all the little details that will help make your backyard flock a success. This book will guide you on how to set up your backyard in readiness for your flock, as well as picking the best location in your backyard for a chicken coop. If you have no idea where to start when it comes to building a coop, you will be provided with a step by step process to use when building a simple backyard coop. There is also additional information on: How much space you will need for your chickens Local ordinances and laws on keeping backyard chickens And how much it will cost you to keep and maintain them We demystify the various types of chicken feed and give you all the information you need regarding the best feed to give your chickens, when to feed them, how to feed them, and even how often you should do it. For the beginner who wants to keep chickens for a specific purpose, no need to fret, this book will take you through: How to feed and take care of chicks and pullets How to feed and take care of layers How to feed and take care of broilers Plus, all the details you need to know when it comes to best practices in feeding A significant part of this book is dedicated to guiding you on maintenance and caring for your chickens. There are handy tools for helping your birds cope with adverse conditions, what to do during winter, and how you can get your egg-layers to be more productive. There are plenty of tips on hygiene, keeping chicken coops clean, and how to spot signs of ill health in your chickens. All this information is packaged together with handy DIY tips. This book has an entire section that is dedicated to common poultry diseases that affect backyard chickens and how to treat these conditions. If you want to raise chickens and have no idea where to start, Backyard Chickens is the ultimate beginner's guide. This book is a practical guide that is meant to equip you in starting your backyard chicken hobby, maintaining happy and healthy chickens, and getting the best production out of your chickens. Get this guide now to get started with your new backyard adventure!