Photo of my chickens by friend ktpupp used under CC - BY/NC/SA

We've been constantly adding resources to our collection for those thinking (or already) raising chickens. One of the recent additions is the 2009 released The joy of keeping chickens : the ultimate guide to raising poultry for fun or profit.

As the title implies, this book attempts to be the ultimate guide and touches on about every topic you'll likely want to know, even keeping meat birds. As can be expected with a book that does a whirlwind tour if you are interested in in-depth coverage of a specific topic you'll probably want to look elsewhere. While the book covers meat bird, butchering, starting a business, incubating, showing birds and the like, it is generalized and more "things we wish we had known" than an in-depth guide. However, enough is covered to give you a starting point to begin your research and familiarize yourself with the many options out there and what might be involved. Definitely worth the read if you are still in the beginning stages of research on what route you want to take.

All that being said if you are focusing on egg layers then this book is definitely one to check out. The book also sports all color photographs which may inspire you on what colorful breed you want and later chapters include recipes to put your egg bounty to work.

A nice addition to this book versus some others is the use of personal stories to begin each chapter, giving background on why the author chose to raise her own. You can check out one of these stories with an excerpt of chapter 1 on the book's website.

Bring on the pickled eggs!