Raising Chickens For Dummies
2. Edition January 2020
432 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
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.
Part 1: Getting Started with Raising Chickens 5
Chapter 1: The Joy of Chickens 7
Chapter 2: Basic Chicken Biology and Behavior 19
Chapter 3: A Chicken Isn't Just a Chicken: Your Guide to Breeds 41
Chapter 4: Buying Chickens 61
Part 2: Housing Your Flock 81
Chapter 5: Choosing Your Housing Type 83
Chapter 6: Designing and Constructing a Coop 105
Chapter 7: Coop, Sweet Coop: Furnishing and Housekeeping 127
Part 3: Caring for Your Flock: General Management 143
Chapter 8: Feeding Your Flock 145
Chapter 9: Controlling Pests and Predators 171
Chapter 10: Keeping Your Flock Happy and Healthy 189
Chapter 11: Handling Health Problems 213
Part 4: Breeding: From Chicken to Egg and Back Again 243
Chapter 12: Mating Your Chickens 245
Chapter 13: Incubating Eggs and Hatching Chicks 263
Chapter 14: Raising Chicks 291
Part 5: Special Management Considerations 315
Chapter 15: Managing Layers and Collecting Eggs 317
Chapter 16: Raising and Butchering Meat Birds 345
Part 6: The Part of Tens 379
Chapter 17: More than Ten Tips for Keeping Healthy, Stress-Free Chickens 381
Chapter 18: More than Ten Misconceptions about Chickens, Eggs, and So On 389
Index 397
Robert T. Ludlow owns and manages BackYardChickens.com, the largest and fastest-growing community of chicken enthusiasts in the world.