Gail Damerow has written extensively on raising chickens and other livestock, growing fruits and vegetables, and related rural know-how in more than a dozen books, including the best-selling Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, The Chicken Encyclopedia, The Chicken Health Handbook, and Hatching and Brooding Your Own Chicks. Damerow is a regular contributor to Backyard Poultry,Countryside, and Rural Heritage magazines. She lives in Tennessee with her husband, where they operate a family farm with poultry and dairy goats, a sizable garden, and a small orchard.

Introduction

Part 1: The Chicks

1 Acquiring Your First Chicks

2 Setting Up Your Brooder

3 Managing Water, Feed, and Bedding

4 What to Expect as They Grow

5 Hatchling Health Issues

Part 2: The Eggs

6 The Broody Hen

7 Selecting an Incubator

8 Eggs for Hatching

9 Operating an Incubator

10 What Went Wrong?

11 Hatchling Identification

Appendix: Screwpot Notions

Glossary

Acknowledgments

Resources

Index

Interior Photography Credits

Chicken expert Gail Damerow teaches readers how to raise all types of poultry chicks, and also explains what it takes to go to the next level and hatch them at home.