Lofgren - The Backyard Chicken Bible: The Complete Guide to Raising Chickens

Living Ready BOOKS
IOLA, WISCONSIN

www.LivingReadyOnline.com

A special thanks to my mother, who, with her love and support throughout the years, has made this book possible.

This book is dedicated to all the young boys and girls out there who have a dream of raising chickens. Dont give up on your dream.

As a young boy, I had always dreamed of having chickens. I wanted a huge chicken farm with the big barn and hundreds of chickens wandering around at my feet. But, coming from a large family of the non-farming type, I was left to my own devices if I was to ever have chickens.

Our family never had much money when I was growing up so I couldnt just ask Mom and Dad for the funding for my crazy adventure. And with them not being of the farming mentality, I could not ask them for the advice I would need along the way. But what our family lacked in monetary standards was more than made up for in love and support in any adventure that we, as kids, were prone to follow.

My passion was for poultry and I didnt let anything stand in my way. My first chicken came from a neighbor who probably gave it to me so I would not pester him any more. That little hen was my pride and joy. As I got a bit older, I worked hard for the neighbor lady clearing her property of brush so that I could earn enough dollars to get my next set of chickens. I remember looking through all the catalogs that I could get to see all the wonderful products just for chickens. I wanted it all. I thought my chickens needed everything that those catalogs had to offer. I would make lists and more lists, and then I would work as hard as I could and then count my dollars only to find that I would come up short.

Chicks cost money and feed costs money. By the time I had bought the feed for the week, there was not much left of my dollars to buy the things on my list. I remember wanting a Marsh Turn-X Incubator. I dont even remember what hatchery it was that you could order them from, but that was always on my list. Silly as it may sound, the most important thing on my list was leg bands. I wanted my chickens to have those brightly colored numbered bands and they wouldnt be real chickens unless they had them, but they were always just out of reach. You had to order like fifty of them at a time and to me they were very expensive. I tried to make my own but that didnt work. I tried to work harder to earn extra dollars but it was never enough. My chickens would suffer because they couldnt have the colorful leg bands.

It wasnt until I was forty-six years old that my chickens finally got leg bands. Now my chickens no longer have to be just plain chickens; they are real chickens. But the funny thing is, though I now have enough bands to place one on every chicken if I so desire, out of all the chickens I have now, only one has a nice bright yellow numbered leg band. Still, I have carried that dream with me throughout life.

I have had to learn the ways of chickens the hard way, through trial and error. Believe me, there was plenty of error, but chickens are very resilient creatures and very forgiving. Every time I walk out the door they come running up to greet me. It might be because they think they are going to get a treat, but nonetheless they all come running. My chickens have provided me with endless hours of entertainment, but they have also given me heartbreak. I take it upon myself to learn their ways and their needs so that I might better serve them. Every day I continue to learn and every day they continue to teach me.

If your dream is to have chickens, then by all means follow that dream. And if your dream as a young child was to have brightly colored numbered leg bands on each of your chickens, then by all means come and see me and together we will make sure that dream comes true.

The world of poultry keeping has come a long way since the days of Grandma having a few chickens down on the farm. Todays chickens are more than just birds that provide meat and eggs. They are the new pets. There are huge forum sites such as BackYardChickens.com dedicated solely to the raising of poultry. There are diapers you can get for your chickens so that they can be in the house or travel with you. There are even special treats and toys designed just for chickens. The days of a few chickens running loose on the old country farm are long gone. Now they are your typical house pets just as you would have a dog or cat.

Many cities, towns and municipalities are now rewriting their laws to allow chickens, specifically hens, to be kept inside city limits within small backyards. These are not little cities out in the middle of nowhere that are allowing thisno, these are major metropolitan areas such as Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis. The poultry revolution is taking this country by storm and it is a wonderful thing.

Poultry have been domesticated for thousands of years and with literally hundreds of breeds and varieties to choose from, there seems to be a chicken to suit anyones fancy. There are egg layers and meat producers, bantams and large fowl, feather footed and clean legged that all come in a wide variety of colors. There are the heritage breeds and the hybrids, the cross breeds and the mutts. It is all just a matter of what you are looking for in a chicken.

Chickens are not the dumb, nasty, foul-smelling creatures that they have been made out to be. Chickens are quite intelligent, considering their small brain size, and the only reason they would be nasty and foul smelling is if they were not properly cared for. Here at our farm, when people come to visit, they are amazed that there is very little, if any, smell and that there is a remarkable absence of flies. Granted, we are a small farm as we keep up to about 325 chickens, but we are large in the world of backyard poultry growers. We also hatch about 700 chicks each year in small incubators, which we sell to other local poultry people.

We try to take the logical approach to raising chickens. We get calls and emails from people all over the world wanting to know about all the different medications and all the specifics about raising and caring for chickens. It doesnt have to be as difficult as people want to make it out to be. Our philosophy is Less is moreless medicine, more healthy birds; less stress, happier chickens and happier you. People just starting out with chickens come into our little store and want us to set them up with everything they might need. They are shocked when I only hand them just a few items. They want to know about the rest of it and I tell them they dont need it unless something goes terribly wrong, and at that point I will get them what they need.

Raising poultry does not have to be a time-consuming, drive-you-crazy type of operation. It should be an enjoyable experience for all involvedfor you, for your family and for the chickens. It is my hope that this guide will in some way help you to realize the enjoyment that so many have been able to find in their quest to have a small backyard flock. If you want two chickens or two hundred, the principles are the same. It all depends on you and the time that you have to devote to your birds.

Humans have an incredible array of different languages and dialects throughout the world. Every species of animal also has its own form of communication and various dialects. And when these two paths cross, between the humans and the animals, new words, abbreviations, slang words and terminologies seem to emerge.