Barnyard in Your Backyard: A Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, and Cows

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 416 pages
• Published by: Storey Publishing, LLC July 1, 2002
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1580174566
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1580174565
• Book Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 2.4 pounds

From Booklist
Damerow, author of several books on chickens and a breeder of dairy goats, has compiled a primer on easy-to-raise and companionable farm animals that will provide a good return for the novice farmer. The introduction acquaints the reader with all the pros and cons of keeping farm animals, covering such topics as manure, noise, and dealing with the neighbors. Six types of livestock are covered in depth, starting with chickens as perhaps the easiest to keep, then moving through ducks and geese, rabbits, goats, sheep, and finally dairy and beef cattle. Each chapter introduces the animal and describes breeds; discusses the animal's personality and how to handle it; provides information on feeding, housing, and routine care; and finally tells how to deal with the animal's output of eggs, milk, fiber, or meat. Simple, clear, and straightforward instructions and advice help the new animal keeper with any questions, and line drawings illustrate many concepts. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Review
Damerow, author of several books on chickens and a breeder of dairy goats, has compiled a primer on easy-to-raise and companionable farm animals that will provide a good return for the novice farmer. The introduction acquaints the reader with all the pros and cons of keeping farm animals, covering such topics as manure, noise, and dealing with the neighbors. Six types of livestock are covered in depth, starting with chickens as perhaps the easiest to keep, then moving through ducks and geese, rabbits, goats, sheep, and finally dairy and beef cattle. Each chapter introduces the animal and describes breeds; discusses the animal's personality and how to handle it; provides information on feeding, housing, and routine care; and finally tells how to deal with the animal's output of eggs, milk, fiber, or meat. Simple, clear, and straightforward instructions and advice help the new animal keeper with any questions, and line drawings illustrate many concepts. (Booklist )

Reader Reviews
Barnyard In Your Backyard is a decent introduction to animal husbandry. It contains enough basic information to get you started with any of the animals covered, but should really be supplemented with a book specific to the animal you are interested in. The emphasis here was definitely on breadth rather than depth. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I did find the layout of the chapters a bit haphazard. For example, my interest is in ducks and chickens. When trying to figure out what size of run/pasture and sort of shelter would be required, I really had to carefully read both chapters, start to finish, to find all the relevant tidbits that were scattered throughout. The later chapters (goats, sheep, and cows) looked to be a bit better organized, but I only scanned them as they weren't in-line with my interests. The organization and lack of depth doesn't make it a particulaly good reference, but for an introduction to husbandry of several different animals, the authors have succeeded.