The Chicken Encyclopedia

March 1, 2012

Damerow (Chicken Health Handbook) draws on her extensive farming experience to fill this term guide with essential knowledge. Organized alphabetically by term, it covers topics such as anatomy, breeds, coop components, and health problems. Full-color breed illustrations, along with detailed line drawings, such as one depicting how to determine an egg's age from its position when placed in water, add both visual appeal and substantive information. Tables ease comprehension of complicated subjects like predator identification. VERDICT Recommended as a quick reference, this is not a how-to book and will best accompany another of Damerow's guides, Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2012
More than 500 cities in North America allow backyard chicken coops, making this a valuable acquisition for the right library. Richly illustrated with full-color photographs and images of different breeds, this resource packs a lot of information into 320pages. The alphabetic entries are succinct and clearly written. Numerous sidebars and tables add depth and enrich the entries. Several of the more interesting sidebars are How to Hypnotize a Chicken, How to Wash a Chicken, and predator identification using the number of birds missing or killed as a clue. Readers considering raising chickens will likely find the appendix, Breed Traits at a Glance, handy for information on breed climate tolerance and temperament. It also provides a nice summary of egg size, shell color, rate of lay, and place of origin. This encyclopedia could also serve as an abbreviated resource for raising chickens, with useful sidebars such as Nest Box Size Guidelines and Incubation Temperatures. The book includes an index with cross-references to other applicable entries. Expanded information on humane treatment would have been a nice addition, but, overall, this is an authoritative Abdomen to Zygote reference to everything there is to know about chickens. The author raises farm animals and is a contributor to Backyard Poultry magazine. She has written additional chicken titles (Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, 2010) as well as books on raising other types of farm animals. This appealing and reasonably priced resource is recommended for rural public libraries and urban libraries in cities where chickens are allowed per municipal zoning code.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)