This is a do-it-yourself guide to building poultry houses and allied equipment. It discusses the needs of the various types of fowl, and gives detailed plans and material lists for building coops, nest boxes, runs, arks, folds, a show box and a poultry palace.

Inside these pages, you will find step-by-step instructions for a mobile broiler chicken shelter for pastured poultry that is used by farmers and homesteaders all over the country. Raising chickens on grass provides them with a healthy lifestyle and a delicious flavor. You can raise just enough of them to feed your family or scale up to include pastured poultry as a profitable part of your farm business. John Suscovich has raised thousands of chickens using these mobile shelters, a main enterprise on his farm in Connecticut. These chicken tractors were created using the best elements from other designs. They are easy to move and provide a good life for the chickens. With a little bit of creativity, they can also be modified for seasonal egg-layer housing, rabbits, ducks and forts for your kids. Not only does this book contain the plans and supply list to build your first chicken tractor, but it gives you some insight into how to use it and what mindset you should have if you are to become a happy and successful farmer. John also walks you through the light carpentry skills you need to build these chicken tractors and teaches you the most commonly used knots on a farm. You may learn these skills for this project, but you'll be able to apply them on your farm for years to come.

This revised and expanded edition of How to Build Chicken Coops—one of the best-selling titles in Voyageur's successful series licensed by Future Farmers of America (FFA)—provides complete and easy-to-follow instructions on building a coop, including 16 pages of new content. Voyageur's acclaimed FFA-licensed series has helped countless first-time animal owners confidently care for their new companions. How to Build Chicken Coops provides answers in a one-stop reference so chicken owners don't have to waste time searching online for advice. Whether readers are involved in the FFA, interested in starting an urban or suburban flock, or just curious about country living or urban farming, raising chickens is a great way to get started. And, when you build your own coop, you can make customizations to meet your specific needs and save money at the same time! Beautifully designed and authoritatively written, How to Build Chicken Coops is a trusted guide to new chicken keepers of all ages. Inside, readers will find more than just a collection of plans, but a compendium of the background and insider information for chicken owners. How much space will you need? What is dust bathing? How many nest boxes and windows will your coop need? How much will it cost? What steps do you need to take to keep your chickens safe from predators? Expanded and redesigned to appeal even more to middle and high school age enthusiasts, How to Build Chicken Coops takes the guesswork out of building a safe and comfortable home that's just right for your flock of chickens.

Chicken--both the bird and the food--has played multiple roles in the lives of African American women from the slavery era to the present. It has provided food and a source of income for their families, shaped a distinctive culture, and helped women define and exert themselves in racist and hostile environments. Psyche A. Williams-Forson examines the complexity of black women's legacies using food as a form of cultural work. While acknowledging the negative interpretations of black culture associated with chicken imagery, Williams-Forson focuses her analysis on the ways black women have forged their own self-definitions and relationships to the "gospel bird." Exploring material ranging from personal interviews to the comedy of Chris Rock, from commercial advertisements to the art of Kara Walker, and from cookbooks to literature, Williams-Forson considers how black women arrive at degrees of self-definition and self-reliance using certain foods. She demonstrates how they defy conventional representations of blackness and exercise influence through food preparation and distribution. Understanding these complex relationships clarifies how present associations of blacks and chicken are rooted in a past that is fraught with both racism and agency. The traditions and practices of feminism, Williams-Forson argues, are inherent in the foods women prepare and serve.