Chick Days: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens from Hatchings to Laying Hens

Chickens are the hottest new backyard "pet"! It seems that every Tom, Dick, and Susan wants to raise chickens in their backyard, whether that yard is one square foot or one hundred. There's nothing more local than an egg freshly laid right in your own yard. But what should you expect when you're adopting a couple of day-old chicks? In Chick Days , Jenna Woginrich, award-winning author of Made From Scratch, the homesteading memoir for the twenty-something generation, offers a highly entertaining and informative photographic guide for today's fledgling chick parent. Fun for the complete newbie and for families with young children, Chick Days chronicles the journey of three chickens from newly hatched fluffy butterballs to grown hens laying eggs. Day by day and week by week, readers watch the three starring chickens grow and change, learning about chicken behavior, feeding requirements, housing, hygiene, and health care essentials, and fun facts on all things poultry. As Jenna herself says, "Chickens are more than 12-piece buckets, country diner kitsch, and egg whites. They're your backyard ambassadors to healthier eating and basic husbandry. Keeping chickens is a crash course in local eating. When you start collecting eggs you'll be eating so local you'll be eating so local you'll know the amount of cracked corn in the feeder at ground zero of your breakfast..." Jenna's witty commentary is accompanied by the photography of Mars Vilaubi, who raise the three chickens himself, along with his wife and son. Their accompanying "chick diary" notes particular things this family learned and did along the way to make chicken raising fun. Presenting just the essential information in a highly visual and inviting format, Chick Days makes every stage of chicken life fun, entertaining, and most of all, doable. It's sure to give any chicken-lover or wannabe-owner the confidence and enthusiasm to join the flock!