This is a practical and comprehensive everything-you-need-to-know guide to chicken breeds for anyone who keeps chickens, is considering keeping chickens or aspires to keep chickens. Comprehensive content features over 70 breeds which reveals how, as well as being useful, chickens are interesting and colourful characters. This guide includes essential practical information on feeding, housing and welfare as well as easy-to-use keys to selecting the most suitable breeds. Chickens make great pets - they are low maintenance living on the scraps that you throw away, and are easy-going, plus they thrive in small urban areas and backyards.

Table of Contents

Introduction; How to use this book; Anatomy of chicken; Things to consider; Breeds (each breed will have a key demonstrating its characteristics); Soft feather heavy/light hard feather; Bantam; Purpose: layer, table or game; Egg laying; Ease of keeping; Sociability; Hybrids; Rescue chickens; Cock crowing competition; Housing and cleaning; Buying; Feeding; Breeding; Eggs; Health and Welfare; Chicken selector; Index.

About the Author

Jeremy Hobson is a countryside consultant and a regular contributor to a number of country magazines and has kept chickens for most of his life, winning several major poultry prizes. This is his sixth book for David & Charles. Celia Lewis is an artist/craftsperson with a special interest in hens.