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Chicken Fact or Chicken Poop: The Chicken Whisperer's Guide to the facts and fictions you need to know to keep your flock healthy and happy
Chicken Fact or Chicken Poop is a science-rooted, fact-based, and study-reinforced manual designed to help you weed through the facts and fictions about your flock.
Chicken keepers have access to more information than ever these days, which makes it harder than ever to determine whether what you're reading is a chicken fact or just plain chicken poop. A seemingly reputable blog may tell you one thing while a magazine could say the complete opposite! A farmer may give some homespun wisdom that another may say is complete phooey.
This is where Andy Schneider, the Chicken Whisperer, comes in. Schneider has assembled a team of leading chicken experts to help you sort through common facts and fictions about how to keep your flock happy and healthy.
Chicken Fact or Chicken Poop covers topics including nutrition, trauma, parasites, medication, predators, and human health . This go-to reference gives you more of everything you need to know, and didn't know you needed to know, about backyard and urban chickens.
Chicken keepers have access to more information than ever these days, which makes it harder than ever to determine whether what you're reading is a chicken fact or just plain chicken poop. A seemingly reputable blog may tell you one thing while a magazine could say the complete opposite! A farmer may give some homespun wisdom that another may say is complete phooey.
This is where Andy Schneider, the Chicken Whisperer, comes in. Schneider has assembled a team of leading chicken experts to help you sort through common facts and fictions about how to keep your flock happy and healthy.
Chicken Fact or Chicken Poop covers topics including nutrition, trauma, parasites, medication, predators, and human health . This go-to reference gives you more of everything you need to know, and didn't know you needed to know, about backyard and urban chickens.
136 pages, Paperback
Published December 26, 2017
About the author
Andy G. Schneider
6 booksAndy Schneider, better known as The Chicken Whisperer® has become the go-to guy across the country for anything chickens. Over the years he has helped a countless number of people start their very own backyard flocks. He is not only the author of, The Chicken Whisperer's Guide to Keeping Chickens, Chicken Fact or Chicken Poop, and The Chicken Whisperer's Guide to Zero Waste Chicken Keeping, but also Editor In Chief of, Chicken Whisperer Magazine, National Spokesperson for the USDA-APHIS Avian Health Program, and Host of the very popular, Backyard Poultry with the Chicken Whisperer web radio show and podcast. He has been featured on CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, The Economist, USA Today, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New Life Journal, and countless other local and national publications.
Andy takes pride in offering science based, fact based, and study based information to his fans to make sure they have the right information to care for their backyard flocks. His latest project, Fact or Chicken Poop provides a place for his fans to go to find out if the information they read on a chicken blog or chicken forum is either Fact or Chicken Poop!
Andy travels the country with his family spreading the chicken love from state to state. Events are typically held at feed and seed stores and include a Getting Started with Backyard Chickens workshop, book signing, Q&A, pictures and autographs, and lots of free educational materials.
Andy likes to remind his fans that when reading chicken blogs and chicken forums your four favorite words should be, Show Me The Proof!
Andy takes pride in offering science based, fact based, and study based information to his fans to make sure they have the right information to care for their backyard flocks. His latest project, Fact or Chicken Poop provides a place for his fans to go to find out if the information they read on a chicken blog or chicken forum is either Fact or Chicken Poop!
Andy travels the country with his family spreading the chicken love from state to state. Events are typically held at feed and seed stores and include a Getting Started with Backyard Chickens workshop, book signing, Q&A, pictures and autographs, and lots of free educational materials.
Andy likes to remind his fans that when reading chicken blogs and chicken forums your four favorite words should be, Show Me The Proof!
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 10, 2017
This is a well written reference guide to how to take care of your backyard chickens.
And this is done in a series of "old wives' tales" about chickens, that are passed around either by word of mouth or by the Internet. I agree with most of these. Each "myth" is explained and the book also notes who explains it, such as a veterinarian
The one fact that I agree with, which I have seen shot down in another chicken book I reviewed, was the use of diatomaceous earth, and how good it was for fighting mites, and that it doesn't harm the chickens.
The only "Fact or Poop" that I disagree with is the one about keeping a rooster. I have had my rooster fight to protect my (his) flock, from raptors (although not always succeed). The book says they are not necessary, and perhaps the hens can protect themselves on their own, but I must say that my rooster did love his flock and did everything he could to protect them. (The final trick was to have a flock of crows that liked having fresh water, and so fought off the raptors to keep their water and food coming.)
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
And this is done in a series of "old wives' tales" about chickens, that are passed around either by word of mouth or by the Internet. I agree with most of these. Each "myth" is explained and the book also notes who explains it, such as a veterinarian
The one fact that I agree with, which I have seen shot down in another chicken book I reviewed, was the use of diatomaceous earth, and how good it was for fighting mites, and that it doesn't harm the chickens.
The only "Fact or Poop" that I disagree with is the one about keeping a rooster. I have had my rooster fight to protect my (his) flock, from raptors (although not always succeed). The book says they are not necessary, and perhaps the hens can protect themselves on their own, but I must say that my rooster did love his flock and did everything he could to protect them. (The final trick was to have a flock of crows that liked having fresh water, and so fought off the raptors to keep their water and food coming.)
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
November 10, 2017
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
Andy Schneider, aka 'The Chicken Whisperer', is well known on chicken keeping and backyard poultry boards, as well as from media appearances. He's a no-nonsense, down to earth, and very funny guy on all things poultry.
His first book, The Chicken Whisperer, was published in 2011 and has become a go-to book of up to date information on suburban chicken keeping. The book filled a void because information is scanty and difficult to find at best, and downright scary and incorrect at worst. Most poultry keepers have been forced to consult each other for information about husbandry on backyard chicken fora and newslists. A short skimming of homesteading groups will net you everything from top-notch expert advice to downright incorrect information. Caveat emptor, indeed.
Thus Chicken Fact or Chicken Poop fills a void with careful, science based question and answers in an easily digested format written in layman language which is accessible and clear to everyone. The writing is clear and concise, though the format takes a bit of getting used to. Each page has a 'Fact or Poop' sidebar with the question itself as a header, the expert giving the answer (and their credentials), and a concise answer to the question. Some example questions and answers include: “ Adding red pepper flakes to your chickens’ feed will increase egg production.”, “ Chicken coops need heat.”, “Keep vitamins and electrolytes in the water at all times so your chickens will have stronger immune systems.”, and many others (note, the above quoted examples were mostly 'poop' (i.e. false).
The book is divided into three broad chapters with many subheadings. The chapters are: 1: Home Sweet Home, 2: Safe and Sound, and 3: Illness & Ailments. Many of the question and answer pages have sidebars with more information and specifics concerning diseases in chickens which can also affect humans, such as salmonella and coccidiosis.
It's a short book, 136 pages, peppered with full color plates including lots of pictures of beautiful chickens. The pictures are beautiful but I couldn't find any identification of breed or type of bird.
The book ends with a useful links/resources list which, though suited to a North American audience, is useful to poultry keepers in other areas. There is also an index after the resources section.
Final verdict, very entertaining and interesting book, well written and on-topic, and fighting the good fight against misinformation.
Four stars
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
Andy Schneider, aka 'The Chicken Whisperer', is well known on chicken keeping and backyard poultry boards, as well as from media appearances. He's a no-nonsense, down to earth, and very funny guy on all things poultry.
His first book, The Chicken Whisperer, was published in 2011 and has become a go-to book of up to date information on suburban chicken keeping. The book filled a void because information is scanty and difficult to find at best, and downright scary and incorrect at worst. Most poultry keepers have been forced to consult each other for information about husbandry on backyard chicken fora and newslists. A short skimming of homesteading groups will net you everything from top-notch expert advice to downright incorrect information. Caveat emptor, indeed.
Thus Chicken Fact or Chicken Poop fills a void with careful, science based question and answers in an easily digested format written in layman language which is accessible and clear to everyone. The writing is clear and concise, though the format takes a bit of getting used to. Each page has a 'Fact or Poop' sidebar with the question itself as a header, the expert giving the answer (and their credentials), and a concise answer to the question. Some example questions and answers include: “ Adding red pepper flakes to your chickens’ feed will increase egg production.”, “ Chicken coops need heat.”, “Keep vitamins and electrolytes in the water at all times so your chickens will have stronger immune systems.”, and many others (note, the above quoted examples were mostly 'poop' (i.e. false).
The book is divided into three broad chapters with many subheadings. The chapters are: 1: Home Sweet Home, 2: Safe and Sound, and 3: Illness & Ailments. Many of the question and answer pages have sidebars with more information and specifics concerning diseases in chickens which can also affect humans, such as salmonella and coccidiosis.
It's a short book, 136 pages, peppered with full color plates including lots of pictures of beautiful chickens. The pictures are beautiful but I couldn't find any identification of breed or type of bird.
The book ends with a useful links/resources list which, though suited to a North American audience, is useful to poultry keepers in other areas. There is also an index after the resources section.
Final verdict, very entertaining and interesting book, well written and on-topic, and fighting the good fight against misinformation.
Four stars
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
February 3, 2018
Good information on some common myths to help the small chicken keeper, good read!
September 25, 2018
Finally! Science! Enough of the nebulous hearsay from out there on the internet.
September 9, 2020
Fascinating, dispelling myth after myth, who sez you need a rooster to get an egg. Raise your hand I know you're out there. The decision is that is POOP. ;)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews