Poultry (ducks, chickens, bantams, geese)

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Birds: general
Falconry and birds of prey
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Keeping Pet Chickens

Johannes Paul, William Windham
Publisher: Interpet Publishing
ISBN: 1842861034

Chickens can be enjoyable companions, and a lot of fun to watch. Keeping Pet Chickens is a charming little book, especially suitable for novices who want to keep a little flock. The book is very clearly written, with colour photo illustrations throughout. There are handy hints in each chapter, there is a useful glossary explaining poultry terms, and there is even an index at the end.

The book covers a lot of ground, helping would-be owners to choose chickens, prepare their home, and care for them. There are short chapters on a wide range of topics, such as handling chickens, chicken behaviour, and how to give chickens health checks. As an introductory guide to keeping pet chickens, this book is excellent. It is very user-friendly, presenting information in easily-digestible bites, and the format makes it attractive to children as well as adults. However, owners of small flocks will find that they need to go into poultry keeping in greater depth, building on the solid foundation that this book provides. The large photographs of chickens do take up a lot of space, and eventually, poultry keepers will need to learn more about diet and disease prevention, for example, than is offered in this book.

I would heartily recommend this book as a first step in understanding chicken keeping, so long as readers understand that it is just a start to exploring the wonderful world of chickens.

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Chickens at Home (7th edition)

Michael Roberts
Gold Cockerel Books
ISBN 0947870075

This is a short, practical guide to keeping chickens and bantams, which covers different systems used by hobbyists. There is also help with preventing and dealing with various ailments that chickens are prone to. Critics may argue that the birds are not allowed enough freedom in any of the systems described. However, as anyone who has kept chickens in Britain knows, foxes are a serious threat both in rural and urban areas, so a vision of free roaming birds is perhaps not as idyllic as might first appear. Some sort of security barrier is needed for the chookies to be safe. There is also advice on regulations affecting chicken keeping, especially useful for anyone planning on keeping them in a back garden.

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Poultry House Construction

Michael Roberts
Gold Cockerel Books
ISBN 0947870210

Chickens need to be safe, but ready-made chicken houses are expensive, so make your own. You can also build a chicken house and run which suits your own requirements by adapting designs in this book. There is detailed help on all aspects of building a chicken house, including plans for different types of houses, and the materials and tools that you will need. The explanations are clear enough to be understood by someone who is not especially skilled in carpentry, or even a DIY enthusiast. The designs can also be used for other birds and animals, such as ducks and rabbits.

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Ducks and Geese at Home (2nd edition)

Michael Roberts
Gold Cockerel Books
ISBN 0947870091

Michael Robert is a poultry expert who has published extensively for hobbyists and smallholders. His ‘Ducks and Geese at Home’ is an excellent short introduction for novices, and anyone considering taking up ducks and geese. The different breeds are covered, with help in choosing which breeds to start with, as well as advice on feeding, housing, and preventing and dealing with ailments that ducks and geese are prone to. This is essential reading before taking a decision on whether to embark on keeping ducks and geese.

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The New Duck Handbook

Heinz-Sigurd Raethel
Barron's
ISBN 0 8120 4088 0

This book is mainly aimed at people keeping ornamental ducks, though there is a chapter on commercial uses of ducks, which may seem a bit brutal if you just love looking at the birds on your pond, and have no desire to eat them! The book starts by asking if ducks are right for you, pointing out the responsibilities involved, as well as the pleasures, and goes on to provide advice on buying and caring for ducks. There is information on the main duck breeds, and on raising ducks. There are also many insights into ducks' needs, and how domestic duck behaviour is linked to wild duck behaviour. This is a very good introductory guide, with a lot of practical help, though ornamental duck fanciers may want more photos of their favourite breeds.

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Storeys' Guide to Raising Ducks

David Holderread
Storey Books
ISBN 15801 7258X

This is a more comprehensive guide than 'The New Duck Handbook', though it is more expensive. Again, some of the advice on raising ducks for meat may make you cringe if you just think of ducks as cute and ornamental. This is a very practical guide, with anecdotes from the author's own experience. It is comprehensive enough to be of interest to experienced duck keepers, though they might want more lavish illustrations. It is a practical manual, rather than a coffee-table book!

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Bantams and Small Poultry

Joseph Batty
Beech Publishing House
ISBN 1857361741

This is an introduction to bantams and other small fowl which explains how the different breeds developed, and gives information on and illustrations of the different breeds. There are clear explanations of faults to avoid, for bantam fanciers aiming to show their birds. Joseph Batty has published extensively on bantams. He is clearly an enthusiast, and this makes his book enjoyable to read. He is also able to convey a sense of history, and has used some historical plates to illustrate different breeds.

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Chickens in Your Backyard : A Beginner's Guide

Rick Luttmann
Rodale Press
ISBN: 0878571256

Rick Luttman's classic, well worth investing in for its common-sense advice on caring for chickens. Luttman obviously likes chooks, even though he is not above eating them. It's a good read, as well as an invaluable manual and troubleshooting guide to help you set up your chicken project, get your chickens happily laying.

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The Complete Book of Raising Livestock and Poultry

Katie Thear (Editor), Alistair Fraser (Editor)
Pan
ISBN: 0330301586

This is a classic introductory guide to rearing poultry and livestock, and is considered essential reading by many smallholders, though readers should note that the information on legislation needs updating. It is especially helpful for people wanting to learn how to care for poultry and livestock, and perhaps make a little money. It's basically a practical, 'how to' guide, rather than a coffee-table book.

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British Poultry Standards

Victoria Roberts
Blackwell Science (UK)
ISBN: 0632040521

The bible for poultry fanciers. This book is very helpful for people choosing poultry breeds, and is fascinating for the information it contains on the more unusual varieties. It is of interest to hobbyists, people who have chickens as pets, and to commercial poultry keepers. There are over 200 colour illustrations of the different breeds. It's a little expensive, but well worth the investment, since you get a lot of information and pleasure for your money.

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British Large Fowl (The Gold Cockerel Series)

Michael Roberts, John Tarren (Photographer)
Gold Cockerel Books
ISBN: 0947870113

The essential reference book for poultry keepers interested in different British chicken breeds. This is a well-illustrated slim volume, which has enough information for people wanting to choose a breed for show, laying or the table, and for people aiming a bit further than the common-or-garden varieties. The pictures are to drool over, and it's difficult to narrow down a choice to just one variety, there are so many beautiful contenders.

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Bantams in Colour (The Gold Cockerel Series)

Michael Roberts, Sara Roadnight (Illustrator), Richard Roadnight (Photographer)
Gold Cockerel Books;
ISBN: 0947870008

This is a useful illustrated guide to bantam breeds with detailed information about each breed, such as colour variations, egg colour, and the breed specifications. It's a great help for people choosing a bantam breed, as well as those wanting to breed show birds.

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Bantams: A Complete Pet Owner's Manual

Helga Fritzsche, Fritz W. Kohler (Illustrator)
Barron's Educational Series
ISBN: 0812036875

This book is geared to novices of any age, but younger readers will find this guide to bantams especially attractive. It is well written, well set out, and the advice is clearly explained.

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Old & Rare Breeds of Poultry

John Butler
Beech Publishing House
ISBN: 1857362268

A delight for poultry enthusisasts interested in old and rare breeds, with good illustrations. It is, however, quite expensive for a fairly slim volume.

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The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry Breeds (The Yale Agrarian Studies Series)

Janet Vorwald Dohner
Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300088809

This is a wonderful book, and you don't have to be a smallholder to appreciate it. It works on many levels. There is a simple fascination with the sheer variety of livestock and poultry breeds, and the arguments for preserving rare breeds are put forward in a very eloquent way. Both farming and medicine benefit from the livestock and poultry diversity. The book is comprehensive, and very well researched, and the author also has practical experience. The book is based on research on breeds in the UK, Canada and the US. Some 200 breeds are described, covering different types of livestock, including horses, goats, sheep, pigs, cattle, and poultry (chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese. There are some 250 illustrations, with 32 pages colour plates. It's a little expensive, but well worth buying because it's such an enjoyable and fascinating book.

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The Chicken Health Handbook

Gail Damerow
Storey Books
ISBN: 0882666118

The essential health handbook for people who keep a few chickens as pets or as a hobby. There is a lot of help with disease prevention as well as diagnosis and treatment of poultry diseases. It is easy to use, with special help for people trying to work out what is wrong with a chicken with particular symptoms. Some home remedies are described, as are indicators that expert help is needed.

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Poultry Health and Management

Sainsbury
Blackwell Science (UK)
ISBN: 0632051728

This is more in-depth and more expensive than Gail Damerow's book, and you need to be able to handle information presented in a quite technical way. It's also more expensive than 'The Chicken Health Handbook', though you get more for your money. This edition has been updated to include new environmentally and welfare friendly methods of keeping chickens, and there is a lot more information than Damerow, for example on hygiene and usage of vaccines. There is also up-to-date information on best practice for nutrition, lighting, egg collection and housing, and there is useful information on legislation for people selling poultry products.

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Poultry Diseases

Frank T.W. Jordan, Mark Pattison, Dennis J. Alexander, Trevor Faragher
Saunders
ISBN: 0702025976

A comprehensive guide to common and rarer poultry diseases affecting all types of poultry (including ducks, turkeys, guinea-fowl and game birds, as well as chickens). This references work has useful advice on prevention through best-practice husbandry. There is also information on diagnosis, treatment and control of diseases, and an account of the chicken industry, so it is suitable for vets and others who have a lot do to with the poultry industry. There are useful sections on public health and food safety. This edition has been revised and expanded, with a new chapter on game birds. It covers more ground than Sainsbury, and is the definitive work for poultry specialists. It is also more expensive than Sainsbury.

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