Living with Chickens: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Backyard Flock
- Book Review,
by Jay Rossier
From Library Journal
These two new books are targeted at anyone with a couple of acres (and even city dwellers where ordinances permit) who would like to raise a few farm animals for meat, milk, eggs, or simply enjoyment. Both volumes are intended for beginners and are written by nonexperts who nonetheless can offer a great deal of practical information and advice based on their own experiences. Peck-Whiting and her family have dabbled in raising chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, pigs, and cows on their country homestead in the mountains of northern Washington. In Farm Animals, she devotes at least a chapter or two to each of these species while saving the most space for pigs. (She previously wrote Pigs and Other Stories.) The author crams her book with personal anecdotes, enthusiastically sharing the successes and failures of her ventures in a casual, down-to-earth style. While Farm Animals gives readers a relatively quick survey of a variety of livestock and poultry and is best employed as supplemental reading material, Living with Chickens focuses entirely on one species and stands on its own as an excellent introduction to chicken basics for newcomers. Rossier draws heavily on his own experiences raising fowl in Vermont and fits in additional chicken facts as he gives detailed "how-to" advice on housing, hatching, buying, feeding, and butchering. He even includes a chapter on children and chickens. Photographer Hansen (My Life as a Dog) ably captures the essence of chickens at home in various barnyards and other Vermont locations. Both titles are recommended for public libraries. (Index of Living with Chickens not seen.) William H. Wiese, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In this charming book, the authors provide a nice overview of the basics of poultry keeping for those new to the hobby. Breaking down the life of the chicken and chicken husbandry into 10 chapters, the text covers the essentials of each aspect of keeping poultry. The discussion of which type to raise goes over the differences between breeds raised primarily for eggs or meat but also points out the aesthetics of the different colors and markings of chicken plumage. The designs of chicken coops, roosts, runs, nest boxes, and feeders are explained, along with how and what to feed the birds. Sections on how to hatch eggs, raise chicks, and buy adult chickens will get the poultry keeper started, and segments on handling eggs and butchering adult chickens assist in dealing with the produce from the flock. A glossary, bibliography, list of resources, and catalog of chicken breeds round out the text. Beautiful color photographs throughout demonstrate the appeal of chickens, adding to the value of this nice primer on backyard chicken keeping. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Impressive. Rossier manages to cover so many topics thoroughly and yet retains a friendly, homey, "over-the-fence" feeling. An excellent choice for the beginner."--Barry Koffler, www.feathersite.com
"I really love this book--the photography is great and the writing is simple and informative. If you have any interest in chickens, this is the book for you!" --Tamara Staples, The Fairest Fowl
"One way I measure a book is my desire to keep it hand for reference and few books will remain closer to hand than LIVING WITH CHICKENS. This is a wonderful book, the most comprehensive and easily digestable book about chickens I''ve come across. It''s a delight to read a book and find yourself nodding, muttering that it was about time someone wrote a logical, clear, helpful guide to chicken raising. After having spent several years digging through agricultural tracks, or poultry books dry as corn husks, I can promise that anyone with an interest in chickens will be adviced to toss the other books and keep this one. The subtitle--Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Backyard Flock--sets a standard for truth in advertising."--Valley News (Lebanon, NH)
LIVING WITH CHICKENS is a handsome volume on excellent stock that will find its place on my kitchen bookshelf beside quality gardening books, cookbooks, and volumes on stonework and shed building. This is a book to poke through in winter when spring projects begin to bubble in the homeowner''s mind, and a resource for the chicken-inclined...[it] is a volume to travel through, not merely read."
--(3) Excerpts from The Valley News, the newspaper that serves Vermont and Northern New Hampshire
"Stands on its own as an excellent introudction to chicken basics for newcomers. Recomended for public libraries."--Library Journal
"Beaks and Valleys: Despite--or perhaps because of--the fact that chickens seem to have brains the size and capacity of a cashew, the backyard flock our family adopted last spring has proven to be a lot of fun to watch. ''They are vastly entertaining,'' says Jay Rossier, whose book, Living With Chickens, is in its second printing. (Rossier, who lives in Vershire, VT, likes buff orpingtons.) Chicken rearing is catching on, even in the suburbs and cities, says Rossier, in part because it''s easy, but also because of events like last week''s massive poultry recall. ''Even if you put the quality issues aside, people have to remember how to raise their own food,'' says Rossier. ''It''s a victory garden thing as well.''"
"It''s an uncommonly beautiful book to look at, too, with just enough lore about these beautiful, underappreciated animals to keep those of us entertained, who, in the end, will leave the nuggeteering to someone else." --Arkansas Times Review
"Living with Chickens is guaranteed to inspire and delight."
Review
"Impressive. Rossier manages to cover so many topics thoroughly and yet retains a friendly, homey, "over-the-fence" feeling. An excellent choice for the beginner.If you have any interest in chickens, this is the book for you!" --Tamara Staples, The Fairest Fowl
"One way I measure a book is my desire to keep it hand for reference and few books will remain closer to hand than LIVING WITH CHICKENS. This is a wonderful book, the most comprehensive and easily digestable book about chickens I've come across. It's a delight to read a book and find yourself nodding, muttering that it was about time someone wrote a logical, clear, helpful guide to chicken raising. After having spent several years digging through agricultural tracks, or poultry books dry as corn husks, I can promise that anyone with an interest in chickens will be adviced to toss the other books and keep this one. The subtitle--Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Backyard Flock--sets a standard for truth in advertising."--Valley News (Lebanon, NH)
LIVING WITH CHICKENS is a handsome volume on excellent stock that will find its place on my kitchen bookshelf beside quality gardening books, cookbooks, and volumes on stonework and shed building. This is a book to poke through in winter when spring projects begin to bubble in the homeowner's mind, and a resource for the chicken-inclined...[it] is a volume to travel through, not merely read."
--(3) Excerpts from The Valley News, the newspaper that serves Vermont and Northern New Hampshire
"Stands on its own as an excellent introudction to chicken basics for newcomers. Recomended for public libraries."--Library Journal
"Beaks and Valleys: Despite--or perhaps because of--the fact that chickens seem to have brains the size and capacity of a cashew, the backyard flock our family adopted last spring has proven to be a lot of fun to watch. 'They are vastly entertaining,' says Jay Rossier, whose book, Living With Chickens, is in its second printing. (Rossier, who lives in Vershire, VT, likes buff orpingtons.) Chicken rearing is catching on, even in the suburbs and cities, says Rossier, in part because it's easy, but also because of events like last week's massive poultry recall. 'Even if you put the quality issues aside, people have to remember how to raise their own food,' says Rossier. 'It's a victory garden thing as well.'"
"It's an uncommonly beautiful book to look at, too, with just enough lore about these beautiful, underappreciated animals to keep those of us entertained, who, in the end, will leave the nuggeteering to someone else." --Arkansas Times Review
"Living with Chickens is guaranteed to inspire and delight."
Book Description
Chickens-why not? Tens of thousands of people in all areas of the country enjoy raising these birds, whether for food or companionship. You can, too, with this indispensable guide. Then again, you may want to read Living With Chickens just for the sheer joy of it.
Straightforward prose and dozens of clear, detailed illustrations gives any future chicken farmer the tools he needs to get started, from step-by-step instructions on building the coop to a brief background on chicken biology ("gizzard talk"); from hints on getting high-quality eggs from the hens, to methods for butchering. Vermonter Jay Rossier draws on his own experiences and those of his fellow poultrymen in discussing how to keep marauders from the chicken coop, the benefits of homemade grain versus commercial, and how to live (and sleep) with a rooster in your midst. Personal anecdotes, interesting facts, and lush, full-color photographs of the birds and their landscape round out this comprehensive book.
From the Back Cover
Chickens - why not? Tens of thousands of people in all areas of the country enjoy raising these birds, whether for food or companionship. Of course, you may want to read Living With Chickens just for the sheer joy of it. Straightforward prose and illustrations give any future chicken farmer the tools he or she needs to get started. Jay Rossier draws on his own experiences and those of his fellow poultrymen in discussing everything from feeding and housing the birds to keeping marauders from invading the coop. Personal anecdotes, interesting facts, and lush, full-color photographs round out this indispensable guide.
About the Author
Jay Rossier is coauthor of A New Lease On Farmland, published by the E. F. Schumacher Society, and writes occasional book reviews for Northern Woodlands magazine. In addition to being a husband and a parent, he reads, writes, and looks after various fowls in Vershire, Vermont.
Geoff Hansen is a photographer and editor at New Hampshire''s Valley News and author of My Life As a Dog: The Many Moods of Lucy. His work has appeared in Newsweek, USA Today, The New York Times, and the Boston Globe. He lives in Tunbridge, Vermont, with his wife and daughter.
The American Poultry Association, founded in 1873 to help hold up the value of standard-bred poultry and pure breeding, supports sanctioned meets at country-wide poultry shows, and publishes a quarterly newsletter and annual yearbook.
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