Ready to make the leap into animal husbandry? Chickens are a great place to start, and these 7 resources will help you on your way to success and give you all the information you need on just how to keep chickens!
Last year we finally achieved our dream of moving to the country and pursuing homesteading. That meant that we finally got to start our gardens, keep chickens, and work toward our goals of having a self sustainable homestead.
Though I had no problem jumping into our chosen gardening method, the idea of something living - like chickens - caused me a lot more in the way of anxiety.
After all, I had been killing plants for many years (no longer though! My garden is doing so well!!), I knew losing the garden wouldn't make me as sad as I would be if I lost animals due to my lack of experience...
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So before I committed to getting chickens, I knew I wanted to do as much research as possible before jumping in. Here are the Top 10 Resources I used to help me feel confident about keeping chickens!
Top Resources on How to Keep Chickens
The Small-Scale Poultry Flock
This book by Harvey Ussery became our go-to chicken guide for every question we had along the way. It was easy to read and covered the basics well while including the more detailed information that is needed as you move along the process.
My husband and I both read it and highly recommend it if you are thinking about getting chickens!
>> Grab your copy of The Small-Scale Poultry Flock here!
The Frugal Chicken
The Frugal Chicken.com deals with all sorts of issues surrounding homestead life, and especially when it comes to raising chickens without breaking the bank.
I especially love their round-up of DIY Chicken Coop Plans!
The Free Range Life
Another great homesteading website, The Free Range Life also features great information on chickens, as well as keeping other animals.
Their post on The Pros and Cons of Free Range Chickens really helped us solidify how we wanted to manage our flock.
Murano Chicken Farm
This blog focuses solely on raising poultry; chickens, guineas, ducks, and more.
There are many posts on feedings and caring for your flock, but this post on how they make $1000 a month from just 15 chickens really piqued my interest!
The Prairie Homestead
When I was looking for organic homemade chicken feed options I came across this wonderful blog: The Prairie Homestead.
I loved that she made the formula so simple by including percentages for each ingredient, so that you can scale it up for the size of your flock!
Our Simple Homestead
Trying to figure out how to keep your chickens from free roaming all over your property? There are a lot of options, but in the end we chose to go with the electric chicken fence method.
It's been working really well for us so far and you can read more about it in this post from Our Simple Homestead!
The Very Best Resource: The Salatin Semester
This was hands down the place I learned the most about homesteading in general. While Small Scale Poultry Flock was a great resource for chicken information, The Salatin Semester gave us the bigger picture (as well as the specifics) on how to homestead in a productive and interconnected way with our animals and garden.
For example, this DVD set with 18 hours of detailed lectures from Joel Salatin, taught us all about how to use our small property to restore the land, keep our animals healthy, and get more yields from everything we were tending to!
The price is an investment, but in our opinion, it was WELL worth it! To hear Joel speak and be able to see his words in actions through the videos really made it seem possible that we would be able to be successful with our own efforts.
>> Grab your copy of The Salatin Semester here!
No matter what resources you choose to follow to help you learn about how to keep chickens, be sure to do as much research as needed until you feel comfortable and competent.
This is not something you want to jump into and then realize that you have no idea what you're doing... and end up loosing your hens. Trust me, that isn't a good feeling!
Jeff H says
Thanks. I share a yard with a neighbor. He has a garden and wants to build a chicken coop. I’ll have to direct him to this article so he can properly take care of his animals should he decide to follow through with the coop. Cheers.
Victoria says
Thanks Jeff! Hopefully he shares a bit with you from the garden!
Jeff H says
A few beers ought to persuade him.