21 Must Read Chicken Books for Backyard Chicken Keepers

Keeping and raising chickens is for everyone, whether you are a farmer who raises chickens in large quantities for meats or eggs or just a normal person who keeps some chickens in their backyard.

Chickens are one of the most enjoyable and easiest animals to raise. They can eat pretty much anything you give to them, and they are happy and not picky about it.

But, sometimes you will still have some questions that you don’t know the answer to certainly or completely. It could be how to feed the most optimal diet to your chickens, keeping your chickens healthy, and more.

That’s why chicken-keeping books come into existence. They will teach you some aspects of keeping chickens so that you can provide your chickens a better life, as well as protect them from potential danger.

Even better, the knowledge you want to know is now available in the form of Ebook, which is digital “books” that you can read anywhere, anytime. You can even have audio-reading for them with Kindle books.

With that being said, let’s take a look at the 21 Best Chicken Keeping eBooks that you should consider getting your hands on.

Do you want to keep chickens in the back garden?

Read here: Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Chickens

21 Best Chicken Keeping eBooks to better your chickens’ life

1. The Chicken Chick’s Guide to Backyard Chickens: Simple Steps for Healthy, Happy Hens by Kathy Shea Mormino 

 

The Chicken Chick’s Guide to Backyard Chickens will show readers all aspects there is to small-scale chicken keeping, ranging from housing, feeding, chicken health, etc.

Kathy Shea Mormino, with her famous The-Chicken-Chick.com site, has been spreading useful information about chicken keeping in a fresh and interesting style to millions of her fans around the world.

In this book, the author has shared her years-long experience with nutritionists, poultry veterinarians, etc.

The book will give readers simple steps in taking care of common issues in raising chickens. The information is well presented and illustrated with a fun format that you can find on her blog posts that have been around for years.

2. The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens: How to Raise a Happy Backyard Flock by Anne Kuo

 

The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens is as it seems: make sure that beginners can start keeping chickens in their backyard with simple steps. Readers will be able to learn what it takes to make their chickens stay healthy and happy.

In this book, you will know the answers to questions like what chicken breed to get for you, what feed to use, or what bedding material to opt for, all thanks to the friendly reference and fun format that the author brings into the ebook.

Here is what you can learn from this book: taking care of your chickens’ lives, building a perfect coop for your chickens, solving some raising problems while observing the chickens.

3. Fresh Eggs Daily: Raising Happy, Healthy Chickens…Naturally by Lisa Steele

 

Fresh Eggs Daily will solve the problem of needing a better and safer food source by raising your very own flock of chickens for meats and eggs, as well as the quality of the chickens’ life.

This book will provide authoritative and accessible guides for many aspects in raising chickens like coop and nesting box building, feeding, and health care with methods that stand the test of time.

Along with those methods, you will see the benefits of keeping your chickens well-occupied, happy, and being in their best health condition possible without needing to resort to chemicals or antibiotics.

The book comes with many recipes, along with 8 DIY projects for you to do, with color photos for better illustration.

4. A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens: Best Breeds, Creating a Home, Care and Handling, Outdoor Fun, Crafts and Treats by Melissa Caughey

 

The author Melissa Caughey has done her best to bring chicken keeping knowledge to a younger audience. She makes sure that kids will know to take care of their chickens and have fun doing so.

This book will cover everything like housing, feeding, collecting eggs, as well as chickens’ quirky behaviors and how readers can help improve their lives.

Throughout the book, kids will be engaged by the advice and understand the best way to enhance their chickens’ lives.

They will learn some fun and creative activities to do with the chickens like chicken forts, veggie pinata, or creating interesting food besides normal feeds, such as a Mexican egg pizza.

5. How to Speak Chicken: Why Your Chickens Do What They Do & Say What They Say by Melissa Caughey

 

How to Speak Chicken will touch specifically on 1 important aspect in a flock of chickens: communication.

Chickens can be just like any lovely pet, and Melissa Caughey knows that. She spent lots of time having fun with the chickens and observing them. With that knowledge, she has turned them into a book with irresistible guides and lots of insight experience.

When reading the book, you will get a grasp on how chickens communicate with each other and with humans, how they use their senses to observe the world around them, as well as how they form the pecking order within the flock.

To keep readers entertained, the book comes with very catchy questions so that they can deepen their knowledge in a fun way, for example, “How do chicken eyes work?”, “Do chickens name each other?” and more.

6. Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, 4th Edition: Breed Selection, Facilities, Feeding, Health Care, Managing Layers & Meat Birds (Storey’s Guide to Raising) by Gail Damerow

 

Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens has been trusted by serious poultry farmers for over 20 years. And now, with the fourth edition, Gail Damerow’s book is revised and redesigned.

Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens the 4^th edition is now more up-to-date with better information about food, coop, eggs, chicks, meat, and health care.

Also, you will know more about chicken behavior and communication so that you can better manage your flock.

One of the notable new editions on this 4^th generation book is colorful photos and illustrations so that readers can view details about the chickens like breeds, body structures, and more.

7. 101 Chicken Keeping Hacks from Fresh Eggs Daily: Tips, Tricks, and Ideas for You and your Hens by Lisa Steele

 

Lisa Steele, the founder of Fresh Eggs Daily, has spent years finding the most optimal ways to make sure the chickens are healthy naturally. Her experience and knowledge go beyond ordinary tips.

One of the topics that 101 Chicken Keeping Hacks focuses on is how you can reuse and upcycle old items to improve chickens’ life. Moreover, the book will show you how to use natural ingredients to make your chickens’ lives better at a great cost.

Furthermore, the book will give you some wonderful ideas that you can easily follow along.

For example, using homemade starch, frozen treats, or growing fodder to feed chickens; provide a swing or scarecrow to encourage running; making herbal teas or homemade salves;  and much more.

8. The Chicken Health Handbook, 2nd Edition: A Complete Guide to Maximizing Flock Health and Dealing with Disease by Gail Damerow

 

The Chicken Health Handbook, 2nd Edition is a great reference book that focuses specifically on chicken’s health problems regardless of ages and breed.

To present the reader with the clearest and most useful information about chicken’s health, the book uses practical charts to show common symptoms, as well as the cause of those symptoms.

It also lists the diseases in alphabetical order, along with the treatments for each disease. You will be able to find the most common chicken diseases in this book, such as crooked toes, poor egg production, poor egg quality, and more.

With the practical cures and measures to prevent the diseases from happening again, the book will help you keep your chickens healthy, safe, and happy.

9. The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook: Raising a Healthy Flock from Start to Finish by Anmy K. Fewell

 

The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook is one of the great guides on how to raise, feed, and breed, as well as enjoy the time spent with your flock of chickens.

This book will cover everything you need to know to raise your own flock of chickens and the events that surround it, such as roosters crowing all the time or warm eggs in the nesting areas.

Some of the specific information that the book will convey to you includes making sense of why chickens do their things, preventing and treating with natural remedies, preparing and building a proper coop, starting your poultry business, etc.

The book will not only teach you anything you need to know about chickens but also makes you enjoy what you do and ease the job considerably.

10. Backyard Chickens: A Practical Handbook to Raising Chickens by Claire Woods

 

The Backyard Chicken Handbook aims to provide useful guides and deliver practical knowledge about pretty much anything regarding raising and giving the chickens better lives.

Some of the topics that the book will cover include choosing the most suitable chicken breeds, feeding the chickens the right way, helping hens lay eggs, and treating and preventing common chickens health issues

The book is suitable for both beginners and veterans in keeping chickens with stunning details and good color photos and illustrations showing chickens’ behaviors, anatomies, and health to keep the readers interested.

11. Baby Steps To Backyard Chickens: How To Prepare For Your First Flock (Backyard Homesteading Book 1) by Kathryn Robles

 

The Baby Steps To Backyard Chickens book will save you trips of going to the grocery store to buy eggs. With this book, you will have what it takes to raise your own flock of chickens and get high-quality eggs.

Kathryn Robles, the author of the book, has gained lots of experience when she raises her chickens in the city. Now she’s sharing that knowledge in the form of an Ebook that you can read anywhere.

In this book, you will have a grasp on many aspects of raising chickens based on your preference and your condition.

For example, knowing if chicken raising is allowed at your place, picking the most suitable chicken breeds, the housing setups to get, feeding the chickens properly, and some basic health information about chickens.

12. The Working Chicken: Learn everything you need to know to become a backyard egg and meat producer in 30 minutes or less! by Anna Hess

The Working Chicken is a compact yet sweet and sufficient guide on how to raise chickens in urban or rural areas. It will guide you through the process from getting the chickens to raising them.

The guide is short but useful so that you will have a general idea of keeping chickens in a short time.

In this book, you will be able to learn about choosing the best chicken flock, feeding and housing your chickens, and more. Furthermore, the book will make your chickens, as well as your family, happy.

This book also comes with a bonus picture book so you can visualize and understand better about chickens in general.

13. The Backyard Chicken Book: A Beginner’s Guide by H. Lee Schwanz

 

The Backyard Chicken Book aims to provide an easy-to-follow guide for beginners on starting a flock of chickens to keep them healthy and raising them for meat and eggs.

The book contains important information that you need to know about chicken keeping in a small-scaled flock, such as hatching, rearing, brooding, and more.

It will also teach you how to choose the most suitable breeding based on your needs, dealing with laying issues, fighting diseases, housing for the flock, and more. The information is well-presented with color photos and illustrations.

Also, while you are at it, the book will teach you about raising other poultry animals like geese, ducks, turkeys, etc.

14. Backyard Chickens Beyond the Basics: Lessons for Expanding Your Flock, Understanding Chicken Behavior, Keeping a Rooster, Adjusting for the Seasons, Staying Healthy, and More! by Pam Freeman

 

With Backyard Chickens Beyond the Basics, Pam Freeman wants to show readers more than just basic tutorials about chicken keeping. The book will explore some aspects of the reality of raising chickens, with some touches of entertainment.

This book will cover some topics that some beginner books don’t fully address, such as odd eggs, the molting process, seasonal feeding, and more. It will also address some common knowledge that may not be true.

The Backyard Chickens Beyond the Basics will take the readers through some common and uncommon problems regarding chicken keeping.

For example, adding new chickens to the flock, managing the pecking order, properly collecting eggs, whether to raise chicks yourself or let broody hens do it, etc.

15. The Backyard Chicken Bible: The Complete Guide to Raising Chickens by Eric Lofgren

 

The Backyard Chicken Bible will guide readers through raising chickens, whether your flock of chickens is small or big in numbers.

The book’s premise is that chicken keeping takes resources, so learning everything you can is one of the most important factors in making a happy chicken society.

The book’s step-by-step guide will walk you through scenarios with real-life solutions so you can follow along with no matter where you’re at in raising chickens.

Inside this book, you will find guidance on preparing the environments for new chickens, keeping your chickens healthy, building nest boxes and coops, bathing, clipping wings, preening, trimming toes, and more.

Just like many other great books, this also comes with color photos and illustrations for easier understanding.

16. The Chicken Whisperer’s Guide to Keeping Chickens, Revised: Everything you need to know. . . and didn’t know you needed to know about backyard and urban chickens (The Chicken Whisperer’s Guides) by Andy Schneider

 

“The Chicken Whisperer’s Guide to Keeping Chickens, Revised” guiding is straightforward and uses common-sense advice to appeal to people getting started on chicken keeping or those with busy lives.

The first book, released in 2011, has received positive feedback and helped thousands of people enjoy having a backyard flock. Now Andy Schneider wants to share more knowledge with the revised version.

This book aims to teach readers everything that they need to know about chicken keeping, even if they have limited space so that they can connect to nature and their food source better.

Some of the topics the author will discuss in this book include the benefits of having a backyard flock of chickens, incubation, broody hens, preparing the coop, food to provide to chickens, chickens’ behavior and health problems, and more.

17. Lifestyles of the Chicken Famous: Pretty Pets in The Chicken Chick’s Backyard by Kathy Shea Mormino

 

 

Lifestyles of the Chicken Famous shows the readers Kathy Shea Mormino’s spectacular flock members, each with a unique breed and name, including Blaze the Black Copper Marans rooster, Rachael the frizzle Bantam Cochin, and more.

The flock also features some unusual, rare, endangered, and beautiful chicken breeds, as well as their stunning egg collections.

Along with the beautifully presented content with color photos and illustrations, Kathy gives readers knowledge and advice about chicken breeding and some wisdom about raising chickens.

18. DIY Chicken Keeping from Fresh Eggs Daily: 40+ Projects for the Coop, Run, Brooder, and More! by Lisa Steele

 

DIY Chicken Keeping from Fresh Eggs Daily by Lisa Steele is a great book if you want to give your chickens the best coop, run, or brooders. It is suitable for anyone, from a DIY newbie or an experienced builder in chicken-related projects.

The book will cover more than 40 projects with various skill levels, including

The basics of picking the tools for the build, pallets’ ins and outs, and some special skills.

Easy and quick projects like coop signs, paned coop window mirrors, dropping boards, and more.

Pallet projects like roosting bars, coop tool holders, feeding stations, compost bins, swinging benches, and more.

Weekly projects like a roadside egg stand, a sliding barn coop door, and more.

19. Gardening with Chickens: Plans and Plants for You and Your Hens by Lisa Steele

Gardening can also benefit chickens, so Lisa Steele shows readers the process of growing, harvesting plants, and keeping them safe so that you and your chickens can enjoy them.

This book will cover tips and strategies for gardening. Moreover, it will show readers how to choose plants for themed gardens such as Nesting box herbs or Orange egg yolks.

Also, Lisa Steele will cover some of the topics related to chickens like composting, coop window boxes, valuable plants and herbs for chickens, plants to avoid feeding to chickens, and more.

The book is beautifully presented with inspirational photos and clear illustrations to keep you interested throughout the content.

20. Chicken Diseases Help – A Quick Guidebook on Chicken in Sickness and Health Kindle Edition by Norman Nelson

Chicken Diseases Help focus heavily on one of the most important aspects of chicken keeping: health conditions and diseases.

This book will go into detail about the symptoms, the causes, as well as how you can prevent most of the common diseases that can affect your chickens’ health, their egg production, meat, and eggs badly.

Specifically, the book covers 30 of the common diseases and infections by fungi, parasites, bacteria, viruses, and the measures that readers can do to keep their chickens healthy and happy.

Some of the symptoms that the book covers include bird flu, fowl cholera, scaly leg, knemidokoptes, red mites, etc.

21. Chicken Health For Dummies by Julie Gauthier and Robert T. Ludlow

This is another great option for those who are concerned about chickens’ health and want to know how to treat and prevent diseases, symptoms, and injuries.

The book is an encyclopedia containing all kinds of diseases, symptoms, injuries, and cures. Julie Gauthier and Robert T. Ludlow want to educate potential farmers and chicken keepers on the knowledge to keep the chickens healthy and in peak condition.

It also shows readers the process of treating a disease, from identifying signs that show the illness of your chickens to examining and isolating ill chickens so as not to spread the disease to the other chickens in a flock.

Chicken Health For Dummies, along with other books in the “for dummies” line from the same authors, will make a great edition on chickens raised in urban and rural areas.

Sum up

Overall, those are the best 21 Best Chicken Keeping eBooks that you can take anywhere and read anytime you desire.

There are some ebooks from the list that cover a specific topic in chicken keeping. So if you feel like the cover-all books don’t go deep enough in some topics concerning you, you can grab them instead, like the Chicken Diseases Help.

If you are still hesitant and want a single best all-around ebook, you should try Backyard Chickens Beyond the Basics. It will teach you everything you need to know in a practical and easy-to-understand way.

Now go ahead, pick your ebooks, and deepen your knowledge on chicken keeping, and thanks for reading