Carissa Bonham - Proven Techniques for Keeping Healthy Chickens

To Super Asher and The Chicken King:

Thanks for being my co-adventurers in chicken keeping.

Copyright 2018 by Carissa Bonham

Foreword copyright 2018 by Janet Garman

Photographs copyright 2018 by Carissa Bonham except for those on pages , all iStock.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Mona Lin

Cover photo credit: Carissa Bonham

Print ISBN: 9781510737204

Ebook ISBN: 9781510737228

Printed in China

CONTENTS

Foreword

I am always excited to see a new chicken care book hit the shelves. Proven Techniques for Keeping Healthy Chickens meets all the standard requirements of a chicken care book for modern backyard poultry owners but takes things to a higher level.

Ms. Bonham goes beyond the usual food, shelter, and basic how-to instructions. Of course, you need a coop, but did you know you should evaluate where to place the coop? Do you want to know how to add herbs to your chicken coop for aroma therapy and chicken health? Thats in this book. How about cooking for your chickens? Yes, they love homemade treats, and the recipes in the book will have your flock eating out of your hand.

Journey through necessary tips that relate to predator safety, coop cleanliness, and which kitchen scraps should go to the feathered family. Then enjoy all the fun boredom-buster ideas to enrich your chickens daily lives. Maybe you want to watch a fun game of Jump at the Piata or teach your chicken a new trick.

This book is invaluable for the new flock owner and will add to the knowledge of an experienced chicken keeper. In addition, the photos throughout the book are gorgeous, full-color glimpses into the lives of chickens. Proven Techniques for Keeping Healthy Chickens by Carissa Bonham is a valuable new resource for the backyard poultry world.

Janet Garman

owner of Timber Creek Farm (timbercreekfarmer.com) & author of 50 Do-It-Yourself Projects for Keeping Chickens

Introduction

Thank you for picking up a copy of Proven Techniques for Keeping Healthy Chickens! My name is Carissa and I will be your guide, teaching you the best tips, tricks, hacks, and time-savers when it comes to keeping chickens.

I brought home my first box full of fluff for my birthday after visiting out-of-town friends who had acquired chicks while we were staying with them. I had been toying with the idea of starting my chicken-keeping journey with mature hens, but their fluffy chicks were too adorable to resist! Somehow, I convinced my husband (who is not a fan of spontaneity!) to stop by a chicken breeder on the tail end of the five-hour drive home from their house. A quick jaunt to the farm store and we were set with a box full of peeping babies.

Years later Im still in love with my chickens. I love that each of my hens has a unique personality. Not only do my girls make me breakfast, but they are fun to watch and even more fun to interact with. Im lucky that my kids still love the chickens, too, and are my co-conspirators in sneaking adorable balls of fluff home from the feed store (shh, dont tell my husband!).

I am a teacher and mentor at heart. On my website, Creative Green Living , and on Facebook in the Creative Green Living Tribe, I teach families how to make healthier choices that are beautiful and deliciousbut will also save you time and money and really work! I wanted to take the same problem-solving, time-saving, money-saving, teaching approach I have online and turn it into a book. My friends at Skyhorse Publishing were looking for books about chickens so we had a wonderful opportunity to partner together and bring this book to life!

When describing this project to friends when it was in the development phase, I told them it was like a devotionalbut about chickens. If you havent ever been a part of a mainstream Christian church in America, you may not be familiar with the idea of a devotional. A devotional is a short book, designed to be read just a page or two at a time. You open it up, read a page or two about one specific topic, get a nugget of truth to help you out, and then you go about your day. They are not exhaustive theological treatises or long, detailed commentaries covering every possible approach to a topic. But they are helpful, and peopleespecially busy peoplelike them.

This book is designed to work the same way. While you are definitely welcome to read more than one tip, trick, or hack each day, I wanted this book to be easy to digest in small bites. This is not an exhaustive commentary or handbook on every aspect related to chicken keeping. Instead, Ill teach you my best tricks to save you time, effort, and money one topic at a time. The nature of this book is to provide a broad overview or just enough information to get you moving in the right direction. If you are craving a more in-depth treatment of a specific topic, check out for some great resources on plumbing the depths of chicken-keeping knowledge.

I also feel its worth mentioning that this book really focuses on well-chicken keeping. I am not a veterinarian. While I cover lots of the preventative measures I take to keep my girls healthy, I cannot teach you how to perform bumblefoot surgery or give injections. This book also focuses primarily on keeping laying hens. I touch a bit on roosters, but most of the tips will help you keep your laying hens happy for a long timeas opposed to keeping your meat chickens happy for the eight to twelve weeks before you butcher them.

Thanks again for picking up a copy of this book. I hope you learn something new that makes your chicken-keeping journey more enjoyable and less labor-intensive than it was yesterday!

Glossary of Terms

I throw several common chicken-keeping words around like confetti. If you happened to miss the explanation of what that term means in the description of a previous tip, this might leave you feeling a bit lost. Turn here if you see me talking about something and you have no idea what I mean!

Angry pancake: A term affectionately used to describe a broody hen who snarls at anyone who bothers her (the angry part) and has spread herself out to try and be as flat as possible (like a pancake).