The Joy of Keeping Farm Animals: Raising Chickens, Goats, Pigs, Sheep and Cows

by Laura Childs

When the going gets rough, the rough . . . start raising their own food. In the first full-color guide of its kind, author and small farm owner Laura Childs reveals exactly what it takes to start raising your own animals, including chickens, geese, goats, sheep, pigs, and cows. Childs discusses what you can expect to harvest from your animals—from eggs to milk to meat to wool—based on her own real-life experiences. Whether you want to raise a few chickens for eggs alone, try your hand at a few goats with the aim to make your own cheese, or are looking to sustain your family and make some extra money from raising and selling beef, this is the book for you.

Childs offers general information for each breed and animal, from how to get started to what to feed and where to house the animals. This invaluable guide is the perfect first book for anyone interested in starting a backyard barnyard or a small farm—or simply dreaming about the idea.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Research

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2010

About the author

Laura Childs spent many years working in the communications and marketing industry. From desktop publishing for both corporate and socially-minded clients, to programming and creating online Knowledge Management courseware for highly respected authors in their field; Laura has worked in Canada and internationally in a vast array of roles.

In the last 20 years she's provided many of her services and offered consultation from her hobby farm located high in the hills of the Canadian Shield. On the farm, Laura raised her daughter to discover her own talents and interests, be adept at living off the land, and balance it all with compassion, grace, and social responsibility. After 17 years on the farm, mother and daughter now live apart, but near each other, in southern Ontario.

With such diverse interests and life experiences, Laura has turned to utilizing her talents to inspire others, helping each to recognize their potential and rise to their personal best. While Laura has spent many years writing about country living, she now writes and blogs on more personal and accessible topics of health, diet, weight loss and natural foods. She has most recently co-authored a book with her daughter on the weight loss diet they created together, "Low Carb, High Fat, No Hunger Diet" (June, 2014).

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting and informative. Great for a novice like myself who wants to know how much work/stress would be going into raising farm animals.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a writer's research tool, I think this book is invaluable. I got it at the library and now it's on my wishlist.

Laura Childs was a city girl turned country girl and she has written an excellent book for those dreaming of a farm with animals. If you're devoted, I think this will encourage you. If you have romantic dreams of caring for animals, this might give you second thoughts.

This is handily divided up into five sections: Chickens, goats, pigs, sheep, and cows. Each give good information about what kind of room you'll need, what type of breeds there are, and what they eat.

My only complaint is the goat section. She says the goat is frequently described as "a three-year-old in a goat suit." Then a couple pages later she talks about raising goats for meat. I suppose it isn't so much a complaint as a realization I wouldn't be able to raise animals for food as a hobby. I just can't picture killing three-year-old in a goat suit. It makes me want to cry.

[Windy Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking towards oowning a few livestock animals or maybe just want a few chickens for a fresh breakfast in the morning, this is the book for you! From cows to chickens, this book explores the various nessecities for raising livestock. With milk rations for cows and the temperatures chicks need to live in, this book educates you till no end. There are sections for cows, chickens, sheep, and goats, including the breeds and production levels of beef and dairy producers. This book is especially fantastic for a family that owns a decent amout of land that wants the experiance of a few pieces of farming. With the amazing amounts of knowledge squished into one book, it is definatly a good idea to read this if you would like to learn something about farming.

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a great start for people exploring their livestock options. Good information, along with great photographs, make this an easy and quick read.

[Xoffelokin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kept my interest, and incredibly informative.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Advice form a small farmer on raising livestock. Discusses the selection, care, and uses of several types. This is a good read for anyone unfamiliar with livestock and poultry.

[Pachyderm Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

On account of the author, there's an overwhelming sense of genuine happiness all spread and smothered throughout the pages of the text. Not only is the "how" explained with raising chickens, goats, pigs, orcows (which was indeed the scope of this. book; an old and cliched adage for budding authors, bestselling and rank amateurs is that you just ought "write (exactly) about what you know."

Ms. Childs has achieved and subsequently accomplished just that with the release of this book, though she does have more than her fair share to say when it comes to the joys of both "animal husbandry" when combined with the ever-present "animal excrement" which regularly manifests itself. to much chagrin while you're in both the charge and care of these after mentioned "creatures of habit" which ubiquitously become grand "creatures of the countryside" during their after mentioned life cycles from birth to death, along with the magical wonder of their supposed "existence" in between.

[Callahan Kovacs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise, exceptionally informative.

[MrsMJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information and well organized!

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're thinking of keeping animals for food I wouldn't recommend this book. The photos of the animals are adorable. They're clean and tidy well-behaved and we know farm animals are rarely any of these things. These precious animal babies are adorable and caught doing the most inexplicitly human of activities. Weird.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A general guide to keeping poultry and livestock on a small farm. It discusses selection and care requirements for the different varieties but is not breed specific. Its cursory nature can serve a an introduction to keeping farm animals.

[Jim]

this is the most popular book for manhattan apartment dwellers

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a great resource for my closet hobby farmer! I live in a big city and like to dream of raising animals some day- this was concise and clear and made me feel like maybe one day I could!