interesting book

[charliefox]

hi all got hold of a very interesting book at the weekend and to my great delight it wasnt trying to sell me anything.not like so many of the current books availble these days, wasnt full of advertiseing garbage no pictures that are duplicated in so many monthly issues that you can buy these days its all a big con so from now on i wont be buying any magazines. so what are your veiws on this subject fellow forrumers,oh almost forgot the book is called (The practical poultry keeper.) by Lewis Wright and it covers it all.i await your comments.uncle fox.

 

[chrismahon]

Is it an old book or a new publication and where did you get it from Charliefox? I like to buy Poultry books, as long as they are cheap! There was a thread on this subject by Marigold before Christmas. I bought a couple from a budget bookshop that I thought were fantastic for a new starter -one had a chapter about cock crowing competitions!

 

[charliefox]

hi if you type the title into your google search bar you can down load it for free from the california digital library ,oh its an old book published in 1867 and its out of copyright .all the best uncle fox

 

[foxy]

Ah yes, that will be very interesting reading Charlie!

 

[chrismahon]

Hey Charliefox, a free book! Now that's the sort I like to read. Will Google and give you my comments, for what they are worth. Perhaps it has details on compounding your own feed from grain. Can't get pellets of any quality in Dordogne and buying and shipping Garvo down by the ton comes to €17.50 per bag!

 

[Tim]

Ah the great Lewis Wright. If you come across an original of the Practical Poultry Keeper, it's worth quite a few pounds now.

One of the treasures I found was a site called Archive.org. This has lots of old books scanned in so if you want to research the history of a breed for example as I was doing, you can often find old texts on this site. There are also some other books on their by Lewis Wright.

@chrismohan - the American books usually have information on creating your own feed - Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens has a good chapter on the subject.

 

[dorinda]

I'm lucky enough to have a copy of Wrights "Book of Poultry" - 1910, with all the original plates - it's maybe slightly! out of date, but it is a a brilliant reference book and the plates are fabulous

 

[Marigold]

I recently bought a copy of 'Artificial incubating and brooding' see Amazon http://amzn.to/x5d380 . What it didn't say in the blurb (or not so i could see it!) was that it was a reprint of a book originally published before 1923 in America. so i had quite a surprise when it came, thinking it was going to help me with my first incubation programme! It contains helpful hints on incubation such as a caution against 'turning eggs with oily fingers' - 'A very little kerosene on the shell will kill the embryo, and fingers that are oily from handling the lamp will soon supply enough to do this. It is usually most convenient to turn the eggs in the evening at the time the lamp is filled and trimmed, and to be on the safe side it is advisable to make it a rule always to turn the eggs before the lamp is touched.' It also gives DIY chick feeding mixtures, eg '8lbs rolled oats, 8lbs breadcrumbs or cracker waste, 2lbs sifted beef scrap (best grade) 1 lb. bonemeal. To be moistened with sour skimmed milk, shredded green food, fine grit and charcoal, scattered over the food.'

Makes me think we've got it easy nowadays - apart from power cuts!

If anyone would like to borrow this, please PM me.

 

[chrismahon]

Just ordered Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens -£9.51 delivered from Amazon Tim.

Started reading Lewis Wright Charliefox. Looks interesting but heavy going reading it with typing mistakes on the computer. Will try again. Pity the sketches and photos aren't included.

Story's Guide has arrived. What a fantastic book. So much knowledge crammed into it. Wish I had bought this years ago. I realise it is American, but incredible depth on everything -size of leg rings needed by breed, fertiliser content of poo in various conditions. They advocate cleaning out the chickens houses annually because of the benefits of composting poo on chickens wellbeing. Predator detective list is interesting -'eggs missing from nest','no clues evident', 'daytime loss' = snake! Or 'birds missing', 'no clues', 'anytime' =human.

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Charliefox. Couldn't read the awful transcript of the first Lewis Wright edition. Found better site with two full downloads of the original 1869 and 1901 Editions. Basically they have photographed old library books so they are complete with the illustrations. They are now sitting on my Hard Drive occupying 32 and 24 Mb respectively. Site is Californian, www.openlibrary.org. So I will try reading again. Thought about printing them off but not at 300 odd pages each!

 

[chrismahon]

Now up to page 56. The section on natural incubation is a revelation! The whole book is based on how to make a profit, not a loss and not an apparent profit. Lots of old breeds mentioned that are on the rare list now. Brilliant and essential reading I would say. Thanks Charliefox.

 

[foxy]

Now up to page 56. The section on natural incubation is a revelation! The whole book is based on how to make a profit, not a loss and not an apparent profit. Lots of old breeds mentioned that are on the rare list now. Brilliant and essential reading I would say. Thanks Charliefox.

Oh you tease! Going to have to download a copy myself after hearing so much good stuff about it!