One of the first articles on the website and a very early one in the library section was an article on ‘Backyard Livestock Books’ which included, among other animals, chooks. That was over 12 years ago and I had reason to re-visit it recently, and realised I was not happy with it. Also, I have accumulated more books on chooks over the last 12 years so I have decided to extract the ‘chooks’ section to revise and update it. This is the result.
Chickens in Your Back Yard – Rick and Gail Luttmann – Rodale Press Inc (US) 1976 ISBN 0 87857 125 6 – A good basic book that covers the subject well, if from a US perspective. The book talks about protecting your chooks from predators, accommodation using the coop and run system, feeding the flock including mixing your own feed, when and how much, and roosters. Also covered are chooks for eggs, including hatching your own, and care and feeding of chicks; chooks for showing and chooks for meat as well as chook issues and their solutions and starting your flock. The book has quite a number of line drawings.
Keeping Poultry – Dept of Agriculture, Tasmania – Dept of Agriculture, Tasmania (AUS) 1989 ISBN 0 7246 1663 2 – A good basic book from an AUS perspective but not particularly skewed towards the small producer and definitely not organic/free range. The book covers breeds and breeding, housing a small flock, the various parts of chook anatomy and how they work. Also covered is stock replacement programs, laying bird management, night lighting, feeding hatching eggs, keeping the chooks healthy including external parasites. The book contains mainly line drawings, a few black and white photos and one glorious colour photo of what a chook looks like inside! (if you are squeamish, look away!)
Backyard Poultry, Naturally – Alanna Moore – Python Press (AUS) 2004 ISBN 0 9585590 1 5 – OK, this is one of my FAVOURITE chook keeping books. Lots of good info for the backyard producer, it’s Aussie, it covers most if not all of the stuff you need to start up your own flock and is written from an organic/ Permaculture perspective and covers ducks as well as chooks. The book covers why you should keep poultry, behaviour and management, breeds, housing, feeding back yard poultry including mixing your own and chook breeding. In the health section she does advocate homeopathic remedies which have no scientific basis. There is a small section on poultry and permaculture and a section on weeds that can be fed to chooks, and backyard poultry produce and what you can do with it. The book has mostly black and white photos with a colour section on some of the various breeds.
Chicken Tractor – Andy Lee and Patricia Foreman – Good Earth Publications (US) 2000 ISBN 0 9624648 6 4 – While not particularly designed towards the backyard market, it contains lots of good information of various styles of chook tractor and how they are used. Definitely organic/ Permaculture base. Chapter one covers what a chook tractor is, and chapter two, why you need one. Chapter covers the various types of chook tractor systems and how they are used, including the Polyface Farm model. Chapter four covers making strawbale chook house. Chapter five covers soil building with a chook tractor and why they are better than rotary hoeing, chapter six is a short section on keeping chooks in the tractor including light, health, roosts and perches. Chapter seven covers marketing and making money from your produce and chapter eight covers DIY chook tractors. Later chapters cover chook processing, selecting chooks for your tractor, raising chicks, predators, feeding chooks including organics and chook health and disease. The book has a number of line drawings.
A Guide to Keeping Poultry in Australia – Dorothy Reading – Thomas Nelson Australia (AUS) 1983 ISBN 0 17 005788 7 - A good basic book that was, for years, the only Aussie book in my chook library and primarily covers chooks. The book covers the domestic chook anatomy, breeds and which ones to buy followed by housing, feeding, breeding, flock care and management, problems with chook health and parasites etc and dealing with their produce. The last four chapters provide general information, breeds and management etc for ducks, geese, turkeys and ‘other poultry’ ie guinea fowl, pheasants and quail. The book has some line drawings and black and white photos.
Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps – Claude Goodchild and Alan Thompson – Penguin Books (UK) 2008 ISBN 978 0 141 03862 9 –This is a facsimile edition of a book originally published in 1941, during the war. While obviously an old book it still has some good ideas for keeping chooks and rabbits in the suburban back yard. It is small paper back covering chooks, ducks and geese as well as rabbits so the amount of data in each subject is limited. Interesting bits are - a stored heat cooker for mash (Mash is rare in Aus these days), a list of interesting veg to grow to feed your chooks, a good variety of static and mobile houses, making a ‘sitting box’, and symptoms of poisoning and what the likely cause is. Quite a few line drawings for the size of the book and a centre section of black and white photos of poultry breeds.
Chicken and Egg – Andy Cawthray & James Hermes – Ivy Press (UK) 2015 ISBN 978 1 78240 200 8 – The book is divided into 3 parts. The first part is introductory and talks about that chooks are and a bit of their history, the science of egg formation, internal and external aspects to egg quality and feeding chooks for egg quality including organic ingredients. Part two is a review of 15 egg laying breeds including origins, features, temperament, care, their eggs and including a colour photo of the hen and rooster for each breed, The third part covers keeping chooks for eggs and talks about getting started, the top 10 reasons for keeping chooks and what might go wrong, choosing your hen house and run, putting your flock together, laying and brooding, diet and health. The book has a few diagrams and lots of colour photos.
Chicken DIY – Daniel Johnson & Samantha Johnson – Fox Chapel Publishing (US) 2017 ISBN 978 1 62008 230 0 – This book starts out with introductory sections on why bother with DIY, tools and skills required and a look at the history of chook keeping. The rest of the book provides details for twenty, chook related DIY projects. The details for each project includes an introductory discussion, a materials list give the timber etc, parts required and tools needed followed by a step-by-step how to including a photograph of each step. Projects include a chook tractor, quarantine habitat, collapsible chook run, various nest boxes, feeder & waterer, incubator, roost, dropping board, brooder wading pool and lots more. The book has lots of colour photos.
The Chicken Whisperer’s Guide to Zero-Waste Chicken Keeping – Andy D. Schneider & Dr Brigid McCrea – Quarto Publishing Group (US) 2019 ISBN 978 1 63159 734 - This book is divided into six parts. The first part ‘A Year with Hens and No Waste’ talks about planning the flock and issues to be considered during the year including biosecurity, rearing chooks, feeding, watering etc. The second part covers feeding in detail, including feeding through the various life stages, planning and implementing various low waste feeding strategies. The third part covers composting chicken waste, the fourth part covers gardening with chooks including locating the garden, soil preparation and what to do at the end of the gardening year. The fifth part covers housing chooks including brooding, coops that will last, options for fencing and feeding and watering. The six part covers what to do when the hens stop laying ie butchering, cooking and eating.
Chook Wisdom – Alan T. Gray (Ed.) – Earth Garden (AUS) 2007 ISBN 978 0 9578947 0 8 – These three books are composed of a series of articles submitted and published by Earth Garden magazine about chooks and chook related issues. This one has a total of 45 articles in four chapters – Chapter 1 build before you buy or breed (8 articles); Chapter 2 Growing the good egg (2 articles) Chapter 3 Living the chook life (20 articles) and Chapter 4 Health and wellbeing (15 articles). This book has lots and lots of colour photos.
More Chook Wisdom* - Alan T. Gray (Ed.) – Earth Garden (AUS) 2011 ISBN 978 0 980 8487 1 7 – As a continuation of the previous part of the series with a foreword by Jackie French. Chapter 1 is Living the chook life (15 Articles); Chapter 2 Build before you buy or breed (3 articles); Chapter 3 is Growing the good egg (3 Articles) and Chapter 4 Health and Wellbeing (11 articles) giving a total of 32 articles.
Even More Chook Wisdom* - Alan T. Gray (Ed.) – Earth Garden (AUS) 2012 ISBN 978 09808487 7 9 – This is the final book in this series. Chapter 1 Living the Chook life (8 Articles); Chapter 2 Build before you buy or breed (6 articles); Chapter 3 Growing the good egg (5 articles) and Chapter 4 Health and wellbeing (7 Articles) giving a total of 26 articles.
*I have an article in each of these books.
