First Time Chicken Keeping: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Chickens - A Step-by-Step Manual to Getting Started with Chickens (First Time)

by Andy Schneider

Filled with down-to-earth, common-sense advice, this absolute beginner's guide for first-time chicken keepers teaches you everything you want and need to know about raising a backyard flock.

Keeping backyard chickens can be fun and simple, even if you have limited backyard space. To get started keeping backyard poultry, you'll learn about:

• The benefits of a backyard chicken flock
• Tips on negotiating chicken-keeping regulations
• How to select a breed to suit your needs
• The incubation process
• The art of brooding
• Setting up coops and runs
• Proper poultry nutrition
• How to protect your flock from predators
• Illness prevention and treatment

With this knowledge, you can enjoy a more sustainable lifestyle with fresh eggs, free fertilizer (chicken poop!), and reduced household waste (chickens love table scraps!). Delight in the journey and achieve success with First Time Chicken Keeping.

Each book in the First Time series distills how-to guidance and advice from an expert on a specific topic into targeted step-by-step instruction geared toward the absolute beginner.

• ISBN13: 9781631599538
• Publish Date: 11 August 2020
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 23 March 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Quarry Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 128
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

First Time Chicken Keeping is a reformat and re-release tutorial instruction guide for the new backyard chicken wrangler. Originally published in 2011 and revised in 2017, this third edition is due out 11th Aug 2020 from Quarto on their Quarry imprint. It's 128 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This is a compact, well written, accessible guide to sourcing, choosing, and succeeding with chickens. This guide presupposes no prior experience and covers all the basics including researching zoning laws, preparing a suitable home which will keep your flock healthy and protected, a -really- good chapter on incubating eggs, to brooding, feeding, management, and troubleshooting. For a short(ish) book, it's quite comprehensive and will definitely provide enough good factual information to help new keepers avoid the most common mistakes. Sidebars throughout highlight important information keeping it easier to find. The photography throughout is clear and easy to follow.

The book also includes a short glossary and resource links list as well as a cross referenced index.

This would make a good selection for the smallholder's library or for anyone information-gathering before making the commitment to start a home flock.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes