THE COMPLETE STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO KEEPING CHICKENS

Laurence Beeken

Publication Date: 4th February 2010
RRP: £19.99, Format: Hardback, ISBN: 978 1 84425 729 4

The Chicken Manual provides a complete and easy-to-follow reference for those wanting to keep their own chickens for both food and pleasure.

The ideal companions to have in your back garden, chickens will provide you with an interesting hobby, plenty of fresh free range eggs along with the occasional roast bird. This combined with low maintenance costs (weekly feed bill is on average £1.50) and natural pest control is what makes chicken keeping more popular nowadays than at any time since the Second World War.

Aimed at the novice but also containing plenty to interest the experienced chicken-keeper, the Chicken Manual presents clear advice, tips, facts and step- by-step sequences, as well as plenty of relevant photographs and diagrams to ensure healthy, happy chickens that are both productive and cost effective.
Topics covered include:

* Getting started:  Choosing a breed, hybrids, other poultry, hatching your own.

* Daily care: Seasonal care, feeding and watering, housing, security from
predators, vermin       control, laying (types of eggs, selling, regulations),
first aid.

* Specialist information: Anatomy and plumage, colours and markings, breeding, incubating, showing, conservation, dispatching and dressing.

* Common diseases:  Includes simple diagnosis aids, biology, health, nutrition.

* Step-by-step procedures: Building a hen house, preparing birds for showing and using an incubator.

The author
Laurence Beeken has kept poultry for 20 years both as a back-garden hobby and for exhibition and showing. He has previously judged at National level and has sat on several international breed club committees. He has contributed to several magazines, covering all aspects of poultry-keeping, from egg to plate.
Laurence lives in Spalding, Lincolnshire.

Also available in the series.The Home-Grown Vegetable Manual, Steve Ott, £17.99, ISBN 9781844256495

The Chicken Manual and The Home Grown Vegetable Manual are available to order from Haynes Publishing on 01963 442030 or can be ordered online at www.haynes.co.uk.