Books for Chicken Lovers

Great Holiday Gifts for Chicken Lovers.....
OMLET/Barbara's Weekly Diary Book Reviews

With Christmas approaching, I often receive emails from people asking me to recommend some books on keeping chickens, and these are a few of my favourites. One of my most thumbed books is Hens in the Garden, Eggs in the Kitchen by Charlotte Popescu. It’s a lovely book with information on breeds and general aspects of chicken keeping such as feeding, health, housing and hatching, and the author combines this with some delicious recipes for all the eggs you’ll be collecting once you’ve added some hens to your garden. It is a very useful addition to the bookshelf. Another super little book, particularly for beginners, is Johannes Paul and William Windham’s Keeping Pet Chickens. Each double page deals with a separate subject and the information is clear and easy to understand with lots of photographs and diagrams. This book is all you need to get you started. For more in depth information though, Victoria Roberts Teach Yourself - Keeping Poultry covers the care of chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and other breeds in much more detail. It is a very well set out book with sections on buying birds, handling them, housing, health, broody hens,breeding chicks and more. It also has a really useful diseases, problems and troubleshooting section at the back for quick reference.

If you’re interested in the myriad of different breeds, there are two excellent books which I’d recommend. Best Hens For You by Charlotte Popescu, is a lovely read with information about the breeds, and little anecdotes from people who have owned them, which is really helpful if you’re looking for hens with real character. It’s such a nice little book to dip into. Another more detailed book on breeds is Poultry For Anyone by Victoria Roberts. Full of beautiful photographs, it covers the history, characteristics and special requirements for common and some less common breeds, and it includes a guide to the number of eggs produced by each breed too.

Finally, a couple of coffee table books on hens. The Big Book of Garden Hens, by Francine Raymond, is a stunningly beautiful book. It is a hardback and a real pleasure to browse as it is full of gorgeous photographs and line illustrations, and it is set out as a month by month guide to keeping hens. Each month has a delicious recipe and features a couple of different chicken breeds too. For a light hearted look at keeping chickens, Martin Gurdon’s Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance is a collection of stories and practical information about chickens, from the tale of Mike the Headless Chicken to what to do with Egg bound hens. An entertaining read from cover to cover.......Happy reading!
Barbara is always on hand to answer your questions about chickens - just pop her an email to barbara@omlet.co.uk