Chickens make wonderful pets, and Melissa Caughey provides all the information kids need to raise healthy chickens and have lots of fun doing it. Covering everything from feeding, housing, and collecting eggs to quirky behaviors and humane treatment, Caughey’s engaging advice helps children understand the best ways to care for their chickens. Spark enthusiasm with creative activities like chicken forts and a veggie piñata for the flock, and feed more than the imagination with egg-centric dishes like Mexican egg pizza.

For the family and would-be smallholder, chickens are the obvious first step when venturing into keeping livestock. Chickens also make ideal family pets, requiring less attention than a dog yet still being entertaining, productive and educational. This practical book is ideal for the complete beginner. Even someone who has never kept animals before should be able to follow the clear, detailed guidance that is given at every stage. It includes: · Choosing the right chickens and housing for your garden size · Exploring useful equipment, such as poultry feeders and drinkers · Routine care for your chickens, including what to feed them on · Outfoxing the fox - and other predators · What to do with all those eggs! · Dealing with parasites and ailments · Broody hens and hatching eggs With true-life portraits of chicken keepers, little known facts, and helpful and informative personal anecdotes, A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens, 2nd Edition is an easy and enjoyable read for anyone interested in keeping chickens.

Raising chickens teaches more than animal husbandry. It’s a hands-on chance to learn the character- and community-building principles and practices that 4-H is all about. And, of course, it’s fun. This easy-to-follow, illustrated guide introduces beginners to the basics of how to raise chickens. Whether you’re a 4-H’r, a first-time poultry owner, or a future egg farmer, The 4-H Guide to Raising Chickens provides step-by-step instructions for your project. From selecting a breed to caring for chicks, from housing and fencing to feeding and preventing or treating illness, the guide presents simple, straightforward information about chickens of all kinds, raised for pets, eggs, or meat. It also includes a glossary and list of resources.

Kathy Shea Mormino, aka The Chicken Chick, shares her wealth of experience as a chicken keeper in a fun and abundantly illustrated format in The Chicken Chick's Guide to Backyard Chickens.

A practical, everything-you-need-to-know guide to keeping chickens for people who are as interested in them as pets as they are in eggs and other poultry produce.

Best-selling author Melissa Caughey knows that backyard chickens are like any favorite pet — fun to spend time with and fascinating to observe. Her hours among the flock have resulted in this quirky, irresistible guide packed with firsthand insights into how chickens communicate and interact, use their senses to understand the world around them, and establish pecking order and roles within the flock. Combining her up-close observations with scientific findings and interviews with other chicken enthusiasts, Caughey answers unexpected questions such as Do chickens have names for each other? How do their eyes work? and How do chickens learn? Foreword INDIES Silver Award Winner

Got a little space and a hankering for fresh eggs? Robert and Hannah Litt have dispensed advice to hundreds of urban and suburban chicken-keepers from behind their perch at Portland’s Urban Farm Store, and now they’re ready to help you go local and sustainable with your own backyard birds. In this handy guide to breeds, feed, coops, and care, the Litts take you under their experienced wings and share the secrets to: Picking the breeds that are right for you • Building a sturdy coop in one weekend for $100 • Raising happy and hearty chicks • Feeding your flock for optimal health and egg nutrition • Preventing and treating common chicken diseases • Planning ahead for family, neighborhood, and legal considerations • Whipping up tasty egg recipes from flan to frittata With everything that first-timers will need to get started—along with expert tips for more seasoned keepers—this colorful, nuts-and-bolts manual proves that keeping chickens is all it’s cracked up to be.