Chickens everywhere

Hentopia: Create a Hassle-Free Habitat for Happy Chickens; 21 Innovative Projects

We, who keep backyard chickens, for a few years, feel as though we know it all, and are more than willing to share that knowledge with anyone who wants to know it, or doesn’t want to know it, as the case may be.

It is sometimes hard to think back to a time that I didn’t have chickens, and had no idea where to begin. Hard to remember that when I first got my baby chicks, I kept them in my office with me, and when they were “coop ready” I moved them into the garage because I had not really thought through this whole “what-to-do-with-the-chickens” thing. I mean, yeah, I knew I had to get them a coop, and a yard, and all that, but hey.

My whole point is that everyone who is curious about chicken keeping needs to have a good resource, and while the local feed store is more than willing to sell you all bits you need for a chicken, they are not there every day to help you with the chickens. So a book like this one is such a good thing™.

The author is very straightforward, has a good wit on him, and explains all the ins and out of making a safe place for your chickens to live and lay. From building a run, to setting up a good laying box, to what to do with all the chicken droppings. (Hint: compost).

He even mentions why you would need a coop to begin with, as though we had gotten this far into the book and though, oh the heck with it, they can live in the trees.

The pictures a very clear, the projects are discussed and each step is shown, along the way. There is even a section on what tools you would need to build each of the projects in the book, which rang from things as simple as an automatic feeder, to a nesting box add on to the coop.

Highly, highly recommend this book to those who are just starting out, and perhaps to those who have had a coop and chickens for a while, for the next steps they want to make in the process.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Picture book of backyard chickens

Let’s Hatch Chicks!: A Day-by-Day Chick Hatching Guide for Kids by Lisa Steele
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When one of my first hens disappeared, I though she had been eaten by a hawk. So much for having free-range chickens.

Imagine how surprised I was to not only discover her, about three weeks later, but also her eight little chicks. And although she had sat on them all, in the middle of winter, where the temperatures at night had gotten to freezing, they were all fine, and each one different from their mother.

What I didn’t know back then, could have been answered by this book, which is unique in the way it looks at the life cycle of a hen, by focusing on both incubator chickens, as well as ones raised by hens themselves.

And one of the facts that they pointed out, was, that although chickens will sit on their eggs for the whole three week to hatch them, they couldn’t possibly have laid all the eggs themselves, since they can only put out about one a day at most. What they do is let other hens lay their eggs, and then sit on all of them.

So, I like how this shows kids how baby chicks grow, both if they are with their mother hens, and in an incubator.

Well written, and follows one mother hen around, through the whole process. Good introduction to kids on life cycle.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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Chickens you need to meet

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a sweet middle-school book, for people who love chickens, and for those who are chicken curious.

This is the tale of a youngster who inherits her great uncles chickens, only she doesn’t know her great uncle has chickens. And each chicken has a super power, so not only does she have to learn to take care of chickens in general, she has to learn to take care of these special, unusual chickens.

It has light humor, information for those who have never had a chicken (so you can learn about that), as well as well written characters.

And that is about all I am going to say, otehr than I have 13 chickens, so I might be a little prejudiced towards chicken based stories.

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Taking care of chickens

Chicken DIY: 20 Fun-To-Build Projects for Happy and Healthy Chickens by Daniel Johnson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have had chickens for over six years now. I have had hawks eat them. I have had chickens run off and hatch their own brood of chickens, twice. I have had a skunk get into the coop. What I am trying to say is that while I may not be the most experienced person with backyard chickens, I do know what is what with them.

I thought, when reading this book it would be all, been there, done that, have the t-shirt sort of thing, but it was not. I thought I was going to argue with the author when I saw that one of the projects was a chicken sweater, but I quickly got off my high-horse when I saw that she wasn’t going to put it on the chicken longer than to take a picture, because, chickens don’t need sweaters. I thought all the projects would be things that I had done before, but they were not.

Very cool book, with very clean instructions on how to make things for yoru chickens that you didn’t even know you needed to make. Not only that, but reciepies in the last chapter, for when you have buckets of eggs and you can’t eat them fast enough. (There are times when, in the height of the summer I have as many as 9 dozen boxes of eggs.).

There are some cool, unusual projects in here, amongst them, the wading pool (because in the summer chickens need to get their feet cool), the grazing box (because chickens will eat every bit of green to the ground, and this is a way to solve the situation) and a chicken swing.

Some things aren’t really necessary if you have good hens, such a chicken brooder (as the hens are really good at keeping their babies warm), but hey, it is good to know how to make them.

So, this book would be recommended for both people just starting out and people who have had chickens for years, because, you never know what you might learn.

I love a book that teaches me something I didn’t know before.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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Things to know about chickens

Chicken Fact or Chicken Poop: The Chicken Whisperer’s Guide to the Facts and Fictions you Need to Know to Keep your Flock Healthy and Happy by Andy Schneider
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a well written reference guide to how to take care of your backyard chickens.

And this is done in a series of “old wives’ tales” about chickens, that are passed around either by word of mouth or by the Internet. I agree with most of these. Each “myth” is explained and the book also notes who explains it, such as a veterinarian

The one fact that I agree with, which I have seen shot down in another chicken book I reviewed, was the use of diatomaceous earth, and how good it was for fighting mites, and that it doesn’t harm the chickens.

The only “Fact or Poop” that I disagree with is the one about keeping a rooster. I have had my rooster fight to protect my (his) flock, from raptors (although not always succeed). The book says they are not necessary, and perhaps the hens can protect themselves on their own, but I must say that my rooster did love his flock and did everything he could to protect them. (The final trick was to have a flock of crows that liked having fresh water, and so fought off the raptors to keep their water and food coming.)

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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