Hello All, my bio and which book is best?

[Welsummer]

Hello All,

I am new and have joined to pick the brains of all you poultry keepers..........

I have a mixed flock of free village range hens and a Welsummer cockeril, Dylan. My flock comprises of Light Sussex, Blue Bells, Black French Copper Marans, Rhode Island Reds, Welsummer hens, Warrens and quite a few brown laying hybrids, in all a very pretty sight around our farm and village in West Wales.
I am new to poultry, I've only had chickens for 4 years, and Dylan has been with me since the end of last year. I sell free range eggs to the villagers, and I sell the Welsummer eggs to breeders. This last week a hen has finally gone broody and she is now sitting on a few Welsummer eggs for me, so fingers crossed I may have some babies, though goodness knows what I am going to do then (hoping she will take care of it all....am I being naive?)
Anyway, my reason for joining is because I have bought 3 ex-battery hens from a local sanctuary, I thought that this would be a noble thing to do. Even though I paid the same as if I had bought them from a reputable breeder. ANYWAY, one of the hens is chirping and wheezing, which, to be completely honest, is new to me, (please don't respond on this thread as I am going to post a question in the health section). I just wanted to say hello here, and give a little bit of info on me and my chicken background (none) and to ask is there a book that is considered the bible when it comes to chooks?
Looking forward to meeting all you nice people.
Welsummer

 

[chrismahon]

Welcome to the forum Welsummer. I posted a reply to your health issues. There loads of books out there. Beginners Guide to Keeping Chickens by Katie Thear is probably the 'bible'. Certainly a best seller and gives enough info for a beginner. She has also written a guide to incubation and rearing which we also have. I now have a growing collection of chicken books and focus on the cheap oldies -1920-1960, where technical content was important rather than pretty pictures. Am reading a download of Lewis Wrights Poultry book from a Californian Library (will never be able to afford the real thing) 1867 and also have the 1901 edition to go at. The best poultry book I have has got to be Storey's guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow (Illustrated edition is available). It's American, so some of the pests and predators are not applicable here (snakes !) and we don't have Fowl Pox either, but it is very comprehensive right down to selection of basic breeds, although their breed performance differs from the strains of the same breeds over here. So it's really a book for people to buy a few years down the chicken keeping line -like you.