The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers Paperback – October 7, 2011

If you're interested in holistic /organic/ homestead practices: if you wish to provide a good life for the chickens that feed you (eggs, meat or both, you choose): if you are interested in using chickens to do some of the work on your small farm/homestead - this book is a great place to start. I've got practically every guide out there, and this one filled gaps while pulling together a coherent, practical approach. I'm new to chickens: I got my first small flock of 5 last summer as laying pullets: late summer I successfully raised a flock of 50 heritage breed chicks and a flock of 50 French Guineas. Right now I've got 100 Fr. Guineas in the brooder (note, guineas are wonderful eating!) and 150 Freedom Rangers due in a week. So I've some small experience, but not lots. I'm still crawling up the learning curve.One reviewer complained that there wasn't much here on ducks and geese - he's sort of right. Sort of, because Ussery raises mixed flocks, and discloses that he isn't going to talk about birds other than chickens directly unless the management processes are different. Throughout the book he keeps his word, identifying special management issues in sidebars and sub-sections as appropriate. I will note, though, that Ussery doesn't keep turkeys, and stated he hasn't been successful with them, so if you're looking for info on managing them this isn't the book for you.I'm on my second back-to-back reading of this book, and gleaning tips in every chapter. Like many others, I'm biased towards holistic practices, but it's unnerving to have everyone from extension agents to magazines to Storey's guides telling me that I'm breaking all of the rules and will kill my birds. (So far, my survival and growth rate is very good, thank you!) The thing is, there is more than one set of rules, and while commercial rules may work for the guys raising 200,000+ chickens a year in confinement, they aren't the only rules that work. My guess is that it's best to follow one path or the other - opt for maximum health for the birds, or maximum support strategies and expenses for you. Opting for the birds' health means supporting their health with deep litter, with adequate space, with regular grazing/ranging opportunities, providing lots of ventilation in the coops. Finding a coherent, integrated structure for this kind of management has been hard to find: until now, I've been dependent on tips gleaned from Andy Lee's and Salatin's books, with Lee's being the most useful.Feed is always a crucial topic, and this book doesn't fail it. There are tips on raising your own feed scattered throughout as well as an entire section devoted to it. It isn't the complete or final word - Carol Deppe's book, the Resilient Gardener, identifies potatoes and winter squash as good calorie sources for chickens (to be properly supplemented with protein etc.) Who knew? I fed winter squash seeds and scraps to my pullets last winter, but potatoes? Must be cooked, but another good resource for those who shy away from raising grain.Overall, this is my new favorite poultry book, and one I know I'll page through often.Practical, pragmatic, sensitive to the needs of both farmer and bird - this book is a winner!

Thank you Harvey Ussery for making a great book packed with info AND loads of good old- fashioned practicality!After starting my urban backyard flock with a couple of Cayuga ducks which ended up becoming delicious meat birds I was ready to purchase some chickens for meat/eggs and ducks for eggs. I had begun to notice how hugely helpful the ducks were at keeping down the slug population in my food garden and wanted to know more about how to keep poultry naturally with many purposes on a big but still urban-sized lot scale. Harvey includes practical info on uses for poultry and how to care for and keep them all in one book. He uses heaps of common sense, and his laid back yet highly effective approach was a breath of fresh air. He covers all aspects of basic poultry raising, keeping, and breeding while adding lots of small details in addition.He goes a decent amount into the care of other types of poultry besides chickens, but if it is your first time having say turkeys, ducks, or geese I would use a manual specific to their care in addition to this book.This book addresses the basics, but also teaches about things such as using deep litter for brooding and why, how to make some more of your own poultry feed with composting to breed certain bugs birds eat, ideas on how to better ventilate poultry housing and arrange a flexible lay-out coop, or how to have your birds beneficially till and fertilize the garden during different times of the year...lots of great tid-bits to go above and beyond basic poultry keeping.Trust me this book is certainly worth its cost in terms of what it offers that I have yet to find in any other poultry book I have bought or checked out at the library! I learned many new concepts that I hadn't heard about before being more of a city dweller, and I think even an expert out in the country would learn a few tricks too!

I own 8 other books on poultry management, but this is the only book you will need to successfully raise chickens. The author knows his subject well and this very informative 400 page book covers chicken management, nutrition, aliments, and behavior very thoroughly. Egg storage, slaughter methods, meat processing, marketing, shelter construction, fencing, predator control, and more….all are there. It includes some very innovative ways to feed your flock with little impact on your budget. Although I will not be producing maggots to feed my tiny flock, I enjoyed reading Mr. Ussery's fascinating methods. A bibliography is included…this is an impressive work. Some folks have complained about "doom and gloom" but you can skip the "survivalist," "animal rights," and "industrially produced foods" parts of the book if they're not to your liking. In reading those early chapters, I find Mr. Ussery strikes a fairly good balance, all in all. His attitude on predators is refreshing, especially when expressing regret over his killing of a weasel early in his chicken owning days. He comes to realize that it is his job to protect his birds and then enjoys watching the beautiful fox trot across his property ignoring the unreachable chickens. There is a lot of information in Mr. Ussery's book that you will refer to and find quite useful. Buying the book before you buy the chickens will save you time, money and livestock losses.