The choice of henkeeping books is bewildering – especially if you’re just starting out. When we were planning for the arrival of our little flock it was tricky to know which was the best to buy, and as a result we bought more than we needed and got thoroughly confused.
It turned out that there’s really not that much you need to know about keeping hens. As long as you know how to house them, what to feed them and how to diagnose a few simple ailments you’ll be OK.
If you can get all that in fewer than 100 pages, all the better.
That’s where this slim book excels. A very quick read, it’s beautifully produced, small enough to keep to hand, and contains pretty much everything you need to know. Better yet, it’s written by a back yard hen keeper, who has only two hens of her own, so you know she’s coming from the same place as yourself.
It’s the only book in which I remember reading anything about checking the deeds of your house and notifying your council (both essential) before buying your hens, and its ‘year in a hen house’ section walks you through your first few months of looking after chickens. Settling them in, gaining acceptance from your existing pets, clipping their wings, chicken-proofing your garden… it’s all covered here in sufficient, but not excessive detail.
The only thing we’d add is a shopping list of essentials you really need to get in before your chickens arrive, but that’s a small point, and not enough to rob it of a five-star rating.
I wish we’d had this book before we set out on our own chicken-keeping adventures.
Price £6.99 RRP (£5.49 from Amazon
Author Jane Eastoe
ISBN 1843403587
Related posts:
Loading ...
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
What a nifty little gem! Shame they didnt give it a ‘modern’ look to its already great content…
I say this as its the kind of book i’d investigate in a shop but other young’uns would go and find a pretty colour picture book with nice big wordz. LOL well what i’m saying is great info on a great book but we’d at leats try to get the look of it right! Gosh looking at that book is like timetravelling >.<
Really? I think the design of the book is one of its major plus-points. I love the olde-worlde charm of it – it’s very cottage garden. It’s part of a series of books, all of a similar design, and I’m looking forward to getting onto the ones on Wild Food, Home-Grown Fruit and Home-Grown Vegetables. Although we don’t have any bees, I could see me buying a copy of that one day, too.
There are plenty of more modern-looking books about hen-keeping for those that want them. For the rest of us, there’s this little gem.