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Articles & Books From Chickens
Your hands-on guide to modern chicken-raising methods Thinking about raising chickens? You've come to the right place! This new edition of Raising Chickens For Dummies provides the most up-to-date, thorough information on the many aspects of keeping chickens in your backyard. Inside, you'll find hands-on, easy-to-follow instructions on choosing and purchasing chickens, constructing housing for your birds, feeding your chickens for optimal health, combating laying issues, controlling pests and predators, optimizing egg production, and much more.
Building Chicken Coops For Dummies (9781119543923) was previously published as Building Chicken Coops For Dummies (9780470598962). While this version features a new Dummies cover and design, the content is the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product. As the popularity of urban homesteading and sustainable living increases, it’s no wonder you’re in need of trusted, practical guidance on how to properly house the chickens you’re planning (or have already begun) to keep.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-22-2022
Chicken owners are a particularly self-reliant bunch. Chicken-keeping is meant to make you just a little more self-sufficient; why spend gobs of cash to do it? Maybe that helps explain why so many chicken folks build their own coops. To get started, you should familiarize yourself with chicken coop styles, the tools and building materials you need, and the carpentry skills to master.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-24-2022
Raising chickens can be fun and rewarding. Whether you’re raising birds for their eggs or for their cackling companionship, caring for your birds is an everyday project. Raising happy and healthy birds means knowing how to take care of baby chicks and what to feed them as they mature.Daily chores to keep your chickens healthyIf you’re raising chickens, whether for eggs, meat, or companionship, you want your fowl to stay healthy.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-27-2022
As a chicken flock keeper, you’re concerned about the well-being, safety, and health of your flock. Although you can’t control everything, such as predators, pests, diseases, and injuries, you can take a proactive role to ensure your chickens thrive in your backyard.The following can help you raise healthy chickens so they can provide you with eggs and happiness for years to come.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-01-2022
Chickens are gaining popularity quickly. Not only are chickens fun and educational, but they're also beneficial to you and your garden. When you free-range your flock, you gain helpful gardeners who aerate the soil, rid plants of insects, provide composting, and, best of all, supply food — their eggs!Here's how to gain insight on good and bad plants for a chicken garden, layer your garden for free-ranging chickens, and guard against chicken predators.
Step by Step / Updated 06-14-2021
Following are the most common questions that flock keepers ask about the health of their chickens. We provide quick, concise answers that you can take to heart or share with a fellow flock keeper in the time it takes you to check out at the feed store.What is that lump on the side of a chicken’s neck?Most likely, the lump on the side of your chicken’s neck is normal.
Step by Step / Updated 02-15-2017
Here are ten of the most famous backyard flock-keeping myths. Busting these myths may burst some bubbles of wishful thinking, but hopefully, it also will ease some unnecessary worries.Mixing a new, healthy-looking chicken with the flock is safe.Many types of organisms that cause diseases in chickens can live hidden within a chicken, causing no signs of illness, or causing signs that are so mild that no one notices them.
Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016
During the postmortem exam of a chicken, you should evaluate the internal organs first. Then, move on to the head and neck, following by the joints and nerves. To inspect these items and finish up your chicken necropsy, follow these steps:Turn the bird around to face you.Use your scissors and cut through the corner of the mouth.
Step by Step / Updated 06-17-2021
You may want to review chicken anatomy before you make your first cut. As you perform the steps, jot down notes about anything that puzzles you during the necropsy. Describe the color, size, texture, and location of the things you saw in simple terms so that you can look up your findings later or describe them to your chicken health advisor.