Aryana Libris

Author : Belanger Jerome D.
Title : The complete idiot's guide to raising chickens
Year : 2010

Link download : Belanger_Jerome_D_-_The_complete_idiot_s_guide_to_raising_chickens.zip

Introduction. Many animal fads have come and gone: Belgian hares, ostriches, chinchillas, and 150 years ago, even chickens. In most cases interest rose quickly, and so did prices, as demand exceeded supply. Some people paid more than $50 in the 1850s bubble - more than $1,200 in today’s money - for one chicken ! The current interest in chickens is different. Only time will tell whether it’s a lasting interest, but it’s not a fad. It certainly isn’t based on any illusions about getting rich, and prices haven’t ballooned. In fact, much of it is just the opposite: a desire for a simpler life, closer to nature, closer contact with our food, and better food, even if it does cost a little more. According to a reporter writing in the Hartford Advocate in March 2009, there are two groups of urban chicken farmers - the low-income, mostly immigrant group that keeps chickens as a side business by selling extra meat and eggs; and upper-class environmentalists who keep boutique hens as pets, but eat or share the eggs with friends. Maybe things are different in Hartford, but I can assure you that in most of the rest of the country, there are thousands of backyard chickens between those two extremes. In other words, there truly is a chicken for everybody. The personal agrisystem of feeding food scraps to chickens which then produce eggs for breakfast and fertilizer for the tomatoes has great personal appeal. People like the idea that they take care of the chickens, and the chickens take care of them, in a cause-and-effect relationship seldom seen so clearly in today’s world. Food is not manufactured in the back room of the A&P, or today’s equivalent. ...