Once you decide to raise chickens, you'll need all the information and advice you can get. And lucky for you, this book is as far as you'll have to look. A Guide to Raising Chickens contains everything you need to know, from starting your own backyard flock to putting eggs on the table. With easy-to-understand illustrations and text, this book shows you all about:

-- Choosing the right breed

-- Caring for chicks

--Feeding the growing flock

-- Building feeders and shelters

-- Collecting and storing eggs

-- Preventing health problems

-- Raising broilers for meat

-- Showing your chickens

Expert advice on selecting breeds, caring for chicks, producing eggs, raising broilers, feeding, troubleshooting, and much more.

Author Gail Damerow lives in Gainesboro, Tennessee, and operates a small-scale farm raising chickens and other farm animals. She has raised chickens since 1970 when she bought her first home, which "came with chickens." Gail has been a creative writing instructor at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville since 1988. She is the editor of Rural Heritage magazine, a monthly columnist for Dairy Goat Journal, and the author of several Storey titles for adults and children alike which include Your Chickens, Fences for Pasture &Garden, and The Perfect Pumpkin. She has been published in many periodicals, including Acres U.S.A., Backyard Poultry, and Dairy Goat Jounal as well. Gail's book for adults, The Chicken Health Handbook, is considered "Flawless" by Booklist (April 1994). Likewise, Ron Macher from Small Farm Today magazine has said of Gail's A Guide to Raising Chickens: "If you want to raise chickens, you can go out and buy A Guide to Raising Chickens and have it all. This is the best single book on chicken raising I have seen--it has solid practical advice, good 'how-to' tips, and covers everything. Buy this book."

Introduction: The Chicken-Raising Mentality

1. Choosing the Perfect Chicken

2. Housing

3. Feeding

4. Meat Bird Management

5. Butchering Day (and Good Eating to Follow)

6. Layer Management

7. Table Eggs

8. Managing Breeders

9. Incubation and Hatching

10. Chick Care

11. General Management

12. Health Management

13. Showing

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