Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks

This know-all chicken manual could serve as a college textbook for the former 4H-er bound for a life of chicken raising, or an intricate tome for the many chicken enthusiasts eager for a detailed cluck for their buck. Damerow (The Chicken Encyclopedia), a chicken farmer in Tennessee, with almost 800,000 copies of chicken-oriented books in print, takes us from purchasing eggs vs. chicks to the intricacies of humidity and candling. "Chicks" in the title is a bit misleading, as "sexing," correcting birth defects with duct tape, and other troubleshooting chapters and charts are included for turkeys, ducks, guinea fowl, and geese as well. Students of chicken rearing are taken from improvisational housing after hatch (bathtubs, storage tubs) to creative takes on the incubator relying on cardboard boxes and woodworking projects. Damerow also cover the basics (and beyond) of malpositioned embryos, panting hatchlings, and the miraculous, temporary chick "tooth," which starts the eight-hour pipping process of pecking a starter hole for emerging from the shell. From eating schedules to euthanasia, Damerow addresses everything great-grandpa knew about birthing baby cacklers and quackers%E2%80%94and then some. (Feb.)