Personally, the only chicken I like is the one on my plate. I’ve decided that, while I do enjoy the small, cute, chattery yard birds, anything bigger than a pigeon just kind of grosses me out. Other people, however, do like chickens. And we have books about it, of course.

I’ll admit that Extraordinary Chickens and Extra Extraordinary Chickens are kind of cool.  These two books are filled with gorgeous pictures of unusual fowl. They will knock your socks off. I’ve never seen such interesting, unexpected, extraordinary chickens. Maybe if most chickens were this fancy, I wouldn’t find them so disturbing.

I’ve been assured that aside from providing delicious dinners and the eggs for lovely breakfasts, keeping poultry has other benefits. Apparently chickens eat all manner of bugs and creepy-crawlies. Chickens help gardens by providing chemical-free pest control! I was unaware of that. I thought they ate corn. See? Even librarians learn something new everyday.

To help people who already understand the positives of chickens, we have a whole slew of books about keeping chickens. Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens seems to be a classic. You could also check out Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds if Extraordinary Chickens has inspired you. Living with Chickens: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Backyard Flock and Keep Chickens!: Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs and Other Small Spaces both appear to be good choices for many people around Fairborn who want to have a backyard flock. We have a relatively new book about housing chickens called, of all things, Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock.  We also have a book called Hen and the Art of Chicken Maitainence: Reflections on Keeping Chickens if you’d like a little more philosophical approach to the whole endeavor.

Click here for a more complete list of books about chickens. If I keep looking at these books, maybe I’ll even change my mind about chickens.

But I doubt it.