Chickens by Sue Weaver

Chickens by Sue Weaver

Hobby Farms Chickens: Tending a Small-Scale Flock for Pleasure and Profit is geared toward the hobby farmer looking to begin his or her own flock of chickens on a small farm or even backyard. Author Sue Weaver, who keeps various exotic breeds and countless barnies on her farm, is an expert on all things livestock and an avowed chicken fanatic. This photo-filled guide begins with Chickens 101 and details the physiology of chickens, members of the Phasianidea family, providing beginning hobby farmers with a basic education in the chicken's unique physical makeup (from wings and feathers to beaks and digestive tracts), behavior, mating, and its unexpected high intelligence. The author offers advice on choosing the right types of chickens to get started: meat, egg, or dual purpose, or maybe even just for pets. The book is an excellent resource for selecting which breed of chicken is best for the hobby farmer, based on the birds' traits, such as aggression, personality, noise factor, tolerance for heat, confinement, cold, etc. Chickens also provides information on selecting or building a suitable chicken coop for the hobby farmer's brood, outlining the basic requirements (lighting, ventilation, flooring, waterers, insulation, safety, and so forth). A detailed chapter on feeding chickens offers essential guidance on nutrition, commercial feeds, supplements, and water requirements. For the chicken hobby farmer looking to start with a clutch of baby chicks (from his own hen or an outside source), the author provides excellent info on incubators and hatching as well as all of the accommodations and preparation required for hens in the nest box. A chapter on selling eggs and broilers provides timetables, requirements, and dos and don'ts to get a hobby farmer's business off on the right foot. All chicken keepers will find the chapter on health of particular value, with expert advice on preventing common problems and dealing various maladies and diseases. Much detailed information about all of the topics in the book is encapsulated in sidebars. A glossary of over 125 terms plus a detailed resource section of chicken and poultry associations, books, and websites complete the volume. Fully indexed.

Sue Weaver has written hundreds of articles and nine books about livestock and poultry. She is a contributing editor of Hobby Farms magazine and writes the Poultry Profiles column for Chickens magazine. She lives on a small farm in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, with her husband and a mixed herd of goats, horses, and donkeys.

Ann Larkin Hansen has contributed articles to Mother Earth News and The Organic Broadcaster and authored The Organic Farming Manual as well as various books in the The Farm and the Farm Animals series published by Abdo and Daughters of Minneapolis.

Cherie Langlois, a freelance writer and photographer who specializes in farm, pet, and travel titles, has published hundreds of articles and is a contributing editor for Hobby Farms magazine. She is a former zookeeper and veterinary assistant and has worked with sheep, goats, chickens, and a variety of waterfowl on her five-acre farm in Washington state.

Arlie McFarlen, PhD, as the co-owner of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. in South Dakota, works toward the saving and promoting of endangered livestock breeds. She is the author of several articles about these breeds featured in Hobby Farms magazine, Rare Breeds Journal, and Small Farm Journal.

Chris McLaughlin, a freelance writer from Northern California, has raised rabbits for two decades, including breeding and showing American Fuzzy Lops. She founded a rabbit rescue in the Sierra Foothils and worked there rehabilitating wild rabbits. She is a contributor to Urban Farm magazine and lives on a hobby farm with various species of animals.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781931993487
ISBN 10	1931993483
Title	Chickens
Author	Sue Weaver
Series	Hobby Farms
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Hobby Farm Press
Year published	2005-06-01
Number of pages	144
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable