Ludlow Robert T. - Gardening with Free-Range Chickens For Dummies

Gardening with Free-Range Chickens For Dummies

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Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2012954758

ISBN 978-1-118-54754-0 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-61264-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-61272-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-61287-3 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Authors

Bonnie Jo Manion is a garden writer, speaker, and photographer out of coastal North San Diego County. She has been combining her love of gardening and her joy for chickens for more than a decade.

Influenced by her travels and time spent living abroad, she embodies a unique Southern France twist on the Southern California lifestyle through artful seasonal living in her cooking, gardening, and writing.

Bonnie and her husband, John, transformed what once was a neglected acre of land into a beautiful and bountiful petite Provence, complete with a flock of spoiled chickens, an orchard, a potager, a vineyard, and award-winning wines.

Bonnie has been featured in national garden magazines for her gardens, organic practices, chickens, and vintage container designs. Follow Bonnie at her garden lifestyle blog, www.VintageGardenGal.com .

Bonnie has an Avian Science B.S. degree from Colorado State University and is the Southern California Regional Garden Contributor for Lowes.com/SoCal .

Rob Ludlow, his wife Emily, and their two wonderful daughters Alana and April are the perfect example of the suburban family with a small garden and flock of backyard chickens. Combining gardening and raising chickens seemed to be a natural and perfect idea!

Rob owns and manages www.BackYardChickens.com (BYC), the largest and fastest growing community of chicken enthusiasts in the world. His love of gardening also inspired him to create www.TheEasyGarden.com to share his passion and love of gardening with others.

Rob is the coauthor of the books Raising Chickens For Dummies, Building Chicken Coops For Dummies, and Chicken Health For Dummies.

Dedication

From Bonnie: To my loving husband, John, who knows, Which came first, the chickens or the vines?

Authors Acknowledgments

From Bonnie: Many thanks to my many supportive friends and family, especially my parents, Lon and Isabelle Bechtold. A huge "thank you" to the John Wiley & Sons family, for their help and support on this project. Thank you to my loyal readers of www.VintageGardenGal.com , for your enthusiasm, kind words, and sharing your love of gardening and chickens.

From Rob: A huge "THANK YOU!" to the thousands of contributing members of BackYardChickens.com and TheEasyGarden.com . Their love of chickens and gardening continues to be infectious after all these years! Also, a ton of appreciation goes out to the great team at Wiley for all their amazing assistance in helping to make this book a reality!

Publishers Acknowledgments

Were proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites

Project Editor: Linda Brandon

Acquisitions Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney

Copy Editor: Sarah Faulkner

Assistant Editor: David Lutton

Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen

Technical Editor: Melissa Caughey

Editorial Manager: Jennifer Ehrlich, Carmen Krikorian

Editorial Assistant: Rachelle Amick, Alexa Koschier

Art Coordinator: Alicia B. South

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond

Layout and Graphics: Carrie A. Cesavice, Joyce Haughey, Ron Wise

Proofreaders: John Greenough, Jessica Kramer

Indexer: Ty Koontz

Special Art

Original Concept Illustrations: Bonnie Jo Manion

Photography: Bonnie Jo Manion

Illustrators: Kathryn Born, Barbara Frake

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

David Palmer, Associate Publisher