Chicken Poop for the Soul: Backyard Adventures

by Teri Metcalf

This book is about backyard chickens. After several years of enjoying the neighbor chickens, the author and her husband decided to raise some of their own. She describes what they did, how they did it, why they chose to let their chickens be free-range, and how it‘s working out. Based on several years of observation, she talks about the pecking order dynamics and chicken behaviors towards one another, other animals and people. She also describes the natural progression from her longtime interest in whole foods to raising chickens and vegetables on their one-acre piece of land in College Station, Texas.

Genres: Nonfiction

72 pages, Paperback

First published May 11, 2013

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book

I had no idea that chickens had such cute and interesting personalities. This was a fun, heartwarming quick read. Also loved the anecdotes about healthy vegetarian eating and cooking. I think what got me interested in reading this book was when I asked my niece how she gets her chickens to go in their coop every night and she said the rooster rounds up his hens every evening and won't rest until they are all safe and sound. Amazing!

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Chicken Poop

An easy read, relaxing but also very informative. I loved the stories of the chickens, roosters, the grandkids and the family in general. It was interesting to find out that the chickens had their own personalities, but that there is a difference between those bred for their meat and the free range ones. Believe it or not, I found it hard to put down.

[Mary Latham-Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute series of vignettes about living with chickens and the vegetarian/flexitarian lifestyle. Fun read.

[Darlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a sweet story about a woman, her family/friends, and some chickens! I feel jealous that she chose this title. I wish I would have thought of that! How adorable! I loved all the stories about the chickens that roamed over from the neighbors' yard and became a part of their daily lives.

But then somewhere around 79% the story became about the author and her diet. I think that this should have been titled 'about the author', but I got over the change in flow and topic. In fact, I got a bit of 'it's a small world' feeling as she tells of her life in 1968. She was in the same city as I was at the time. She and her husband must be very close to my age, a bit older but at our ages the few years don't matter anymore. Not only were they in the same city but the author seemed to have the same diet of books that created her diet. Her research for pregnancy and raising children were the same as mine. Even her call of being flexitarian which I have been and was more back then than now. Now I am more vegetarian-leaning, always, toward vegan. Just can't give up the cheese for long.

But back to the bucolic chickens and their lives. When my children were young I had an acre with roaming chickens and had a couple goats, too. Ms. Teri Metcalf brought that back to me and makes me impatient to get that life back. Only 19 days until that happens!

[Alisa Kester · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven reading experience. Some of the stories were charming, but others would be misleading to anyone thinking of getting their own backyard chickens. Also, I don't understand why she had to conclude the book with a couple of random chapters on her diet...that was a very odd way to end it!

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book

This was a fun and informative read for anyone thinking of having their own chickens, either in a city or country setting.

[Terri Borden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barnyard fun.

Enjoyed the down home stories. Kind of relived my childhood. I still head to the chicken barn every year at the county fair.