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    The Way Of The Chicken: A Guide To Keeping Backyard Chickens
    The Way Of The Chicken: A Guide To Keeping Backyard Chickens
    The Way Of The Chicken: A Guide To Keeping Backyard Chickens
    Ebook128 pages46 minutes

    The Way Of The Chicken: A Guide To Keeping Backyard Chickens

    By Gavin Webber

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This how-to-book is not your ordinary guide, but also is a tale of apprehension, excitement, joy, despair, and happiness.

    It is a story that spans five years, from the first day that I suggested keeping chickens to my wife up until the time when I expanded the chicken run to its current size. This book is full of great tips and ideas to help make your own backyard chicken dream a reality.

    The benefits of keeping backyard chickens are many, from laying eggs, enriching your soil, to weeding and preparing your vegetable beds for the next crop. Chickens are extremely willing workers that will enhance your garden more than you ever could by yourself.

    Keeping backyard chickens has never been so much fun!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGavin Webber
    Release dateAug 5, 2012
    ISBN9781476215563
    The Way Of The Chicken: A Guide To Keeping Backyard Chickens
    Author

    Gavin Webber

    By day, Gavin Webber is a mild-mannered IT professional working in the heart of Melbourne and recently earned a Diploma of Carbon Management.However, at night and on weekends he becomes a committed and feverish blogger and writer, informing the world and giving practical tips on cheese making, fruit and vegetable growing, chickens, DIY backyard building and many other sustainability topics.Married to Kim, with four children scattered around the globe, he currently lives in Victoria, Australia, and continues to write about his journey at his blog, The Greening of Gavin. The blog has over 1400 posts and has received over 1.7 million page views.Gavin's sustainable living work was recently acknowledge when he received the 2013 Green Lifestyle Award for "Local Green Hero". He was also listed as Highly Commended in the On-line Eco Information site category.

    Read more from Gavin Webber

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      Book preview

      The Way Of The Chicken - Gavin Webber

      The Way Of The Chicken

      A Guide To Keeping Backyard Chickens

      by

      Gavin Webber

      Copyright 2012 by Gavin Webber

      Illustrations by Kim Webber

      Photographs by Gavin & Kim Webber

      All rights reserved.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Visit my website at www.greeningofgavin.com

      Also by Gavin Webber, available at good ebook retailers everywhere:

      The Greening of Gavin - My First Year Of Living Sustainably (a memoir)

      To my Mother and Father,

      You introduced me to the way of the backyard chicken and gave me the best upbringing a child could ever have.

      To my best friend Butch,

      Friend of many a chook, and always by my side. I miss you.

      1994 - 2010

      Table Of Contents

      Forward

      Chapter 1 - The Decision

      Chapter 2 - The Hen House

      Chapter 3 - Paint Job

      Chapter 4 - The Chicken Run

      Chapter 5 - Collecting the Chickens

      Chapter 6 - The First Egg

      Chapter 7 - Settling In

      Chapter 8 - Free Ranging

      Chapter 9 - Protection From The Heat

      Chapter 10 - Hygiene and Health

      Chapter 11 - Feed

      Chapter 12 - Our First Casualty

      Chapter 13 - Additions To The Flock

      Chapter 14 - Crook Chook (aka Sick Chicken)

      Chapter 15 - Reclaiming Space

      Chapter 16 - Broody Hens

      Chapter 17 - The Rooster

      Chapter 18 - Cluckingham Palace

      Chapter 19 - Self Watering

      Chapter 20 - Egg Production & Return On Investment

      Chapter 21 - Summary

      Afterward

      About The Author

      Connect with Me Online

      Other ebooks By Gavin Webber

      Forward

      I realise that there are literally tens upon hundreds of backyard chicken books out on the market, however I have a different story to tell. This how-to-book is not your ordinary guide, but also a tale of apprehension, excitement, joy, despair, and happiness. I have found that keeping backyard chickens brings out the best in a man or woman, and can help to slow down your lifestyle, if you let them.

      It is a story that spans five years, from the first day that I suggested keeping chickens to my wife Kim, up to the time when I expanded the chicken run to its current size. It is still standing today as a testament to my newly acquired construction skills, the family's assistance, and lots of hard labour. Speaking of hard labour, in the first three years of this story, I suffered from a chronic back injury, which slowed down all of my plans. As time passed, I recovered, and then it was full steam ahead on our chicken journey.

      The benefits of keeping backyard chickens are many, as you will find out if you read on, from laying eggs, enriching your soil, to weeding and preparing your vegetable beds for the next crop.

      With all that said, I find that the biggest benefit is laughter! Yes, laughter. They are hilarious to watch, and all have individual personalities that will simply amaze you each and every day.

      Contrary to popular belief, chickens are not mindless animals to be squeezed into cages for our egg consumption pleasure. They, like cats and dogs, have feelings, needs, and are not lacking intelligence, especially considering the small size of their brains. Not clever in the sense of you or I, but smart enough to know when they are upset and want to free range around the garden. They know what they like.

      Anyway, chickens have, in a small way, enhanced my journey towards a more sustainable lifestyle as you will soon discover. Most of all, chickens are extremely willing workers that will enhance your garden more than you ever could by yourself.

      I have written this guide for education purposes only, so copy any of my actions/advice at your own risk. That said, it is my story, and yours will probably be different, but a journey worth taking and probably just as much fun!

      Gavin Webber

      Chapter 1 - The Decision

      Our chicken journey started in early 2008, when the discussion in our family turned to keeping chickens in the back yard.

      We weighed up the following pros and cons;

      Pros: Lots of eggs, free fertilizer for the vegetable patch, free pest control, free weeding.

      Cons: They might smell, could attract rats and mice, might get eaten by foxes, or mess up the yard, and the cost of feed.

      After much discussion , we finally agreed that getting four chickens was a good idea, the pros won out in the end. We watched couple of YouTube videos, which helped to confirm that hens were not so hard to care for. As far as I was concerned, I liked chickens and remember from my childhood that we always kept some on the dairy farm that I grew up on. I don't remember them being very hard work for my parents.

      We decided that we would rather be safe in the knowledge that our eggs were produced with lots of tender loving care, and not to continue to sponsor cruel egg production techniques aka factory farmed battery hens. We decided not to keep them for meat, and that all the hens will have names. Kim began to choose names and from memory I think Henny Penny was one of them!

      Next, I researched the local laws for our area, and found that we are allowed to have up to twelve hens without a permit. There are other rules, for example, the hen house must be two metres (6 ft) from the fence line and it must be six metres (19.5ft) from any building on your neighbours side of the fence.

      We found the perfect place near our old plum tree, mainly because I had previously constructed a 'L' shaped screen which we knew we could reuse and incorporate into the design of the chicken run.

      Before we took the next step, I started to research all that I could about chickens. I read a great book titled, Backyard Poultry - Naturally by Alanna Moore. It was a great beginners guide and a vast source of knowledge that helped me learn much about poultry keeping. I also visited the library and read just about every chicken magazine or book I could get my hands on, Grass Roots being one. I learnt a lot just by reading, but now had to put it into practice.

      The next problem was where to source

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