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Chicken Care Book

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After many years of publishing our monthly newsletters, we realized that we almost wrote all the pages of a chicken care book. So here is the table of content of this book. Click on each link to read the corresponding article.

 

Just as we split our classes in two parts, we also divided the book in two parts. The first part contains the basics to help beginner chicken keepers, and the second part contains more advanced topics to help you keep your chickens happy and healthy.

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Part 1

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  1. Thinking of having chickens?

    1. Her great-great-great-grandma was a T-Rex

    2. Chickens are smarter than we think, old hen new tricks, bird brains

    3. ​Senses: sight, taste and smell, touch, hearing

    4. Best home for an older hen​​

  2. Housing

    1. Coop

      1. Peppa's coop

      2. DIY coop

    2. Predator proofing

    3. Bedding materials

    4. Chickens in the rain

  3. Food

    1. Eating food and drinking water

    2. What to feed chickens part 1

    3. What to feed chickens part 2

    4. Egg shells as calcium supplement

    5. Poisonous food

    6. Moldy food

    7. Gear

      1. Feeders, treadle feeder

      2. Waterers

      3. Food storage container

  4. Maintenance

    1. Biosecurity​​

  5. Basic health care

    1. ​Vets

    2. Reproduction

    3. Human diseases from chickens

  6. Which chickens to get and where?

    1. Breeds

    2. ​Adoption

    3. A second life for ex-commercial hens

    4. Where do chickens come from?, Hatcheries

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⮕ Gearing up Checklist

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chicken care book - part 1

Part 2

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  1. Enriching the coop and yard

    1. Natural behaviors: dust bathing, sun bathing, roosting, preening, tidbitting

    2. Keeping them busy: lockdown enrichment, ice cube treats, pumpkins, hanging cabbage

    3. Gardens for chickens

    4. Gardening with chickens

  2. Pecking order

  3. Introducing new chickens

    1. ​Quarantine

    2. Disinfectants

  4. Health check

    1. Fecal test

    2. ​Body temperature

    3. Vaccination

    4. Anatomy

      1. Vision

      2. Brain: both asleep & awake​

      3. Pineal gland

      4. ​Respiratory system

      5. Feathers: hackles​​, saddle, sickles

      6. Preen gland

      7. Feet

  5. Be prepared

    1. Vets

    2. California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System (CAFHS)

    3. Second coop

    4. Fire evacuation preparedness

  6. Common problems and illnesses

    1. Molting

    2. Scissor beak

    3. Heat stress and cooling techniques

    4. Obesity

    5. External parasites

      1. ​Wing lice

      2. Scaly leg mites

    6. Parasitic worms

    7. Fowl pox

    8. Prolapse and hormone implant

    9. Salpingitis and lash eggs

    10. Flystrike

    11. Frostbite

    12. Wildfire smoke

    13. Viral diseases

      1. Virulent Newcastle disease (VND)​

      2. Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)

  7. How to

    1. Trim nails

    2. Clean butt

    3. Clip wings

    4. Give a pill

    5. Tube feed

    6. ​Torpedo feed

    7. Subcutaneous fluids

    8. Palliative care

    9. Deal with death

    10. Request a necropsy

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chicken care book - part 2
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