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Many gardeners fear chickens will peck away at their landscape, and chicken lovers often shy away from gardening for the same reason. But you can keep chickens and have a beautiful garden, too! Fresh eggs aren't the only benefit — chickens can actually help your garden grow and thrive, even as your garden does the same for your chickens.

In this essential handbook, award-winning garden designer Jessi Bloom covers everything a gardener needs to know, including chicken-keeping basics, simple garden plans to get you started, tips on attractive fencing options, the best plants and plants to avoid, and step-by-step instructions for getting your chicken garden up and running.

For anyone who wants a fabulous garden where colorful chickens happily roam, Free-Range Chicken Gardens is the guide that will bring the dream home to roost.

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Organic No-Till Farming offers a map to an organic farming system that limits tillage, reduces labor, and improves soil structure. Based on the latest research by pioneering agriculturists, this book offers new technologies and tools based on sound biological principles, making it possible to reduce and even eliminate tillage. Field-tested over many seasons, these methods make cover crops into a source of fertility as well as a tool for weed management. As traditional tillage turns into rotational tillage, natural soil biology is maximized and synthetic inputs are minimized. For organic farmers who want to refine their practices and conventional farmers interested in new ideas, Organic No-Till Farming is indispensable.

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Robert and Hannah Litt have dispensed advice to hundreds of urban and suburban chicken-keepers from behind their perch at Portland’s Urban Farm Store, and now they’re ready to help you go local and sustainable with your own backyard birds. In this handy guide to breeds, feed, coops, and care, the Litts take you under their experienced wings and share the secrets to:

• Picking the breeds that are right for you
• Building a sturdy coop in one weekend for $100
• Raising happy and hearty chicks
• Feeding your flock for optimal health and egg nutrition
• Preventing and treating common chicken diseases
• Planning ahead for family, neighborhood, and legal considerations
• Whipping up tasty egg recipes from flan to frittata

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Rabbits are a wonderful animal to raise as a pet or as part of the livestock on a farm. They are a great starter animal for children who participate in 4-H or other rabbit shows. This book will detail information on raising animals in both urban and rural situations, breed types, housing and food requirements, and general health care for the rabbit. The book will help you determine what rabbit breed will best suit your needs and inform you of what you need to know to keep your rabbit happy and healthy. Advice on showing your rabbit will also be included.

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Getting your goat has never been easier. This book is part manual part cookbook, perfect for homesteaders or families looking to own goats for fun or function. It's also a perfect how-to guide for starting a small goat-based business. Packed with insider information on everything from breeding to milking, courtesy of the operators of the only goat school in the country, this book also features more than 100 recipes using goat milk, meat, and cheese.

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Goats are easy to care for and a low-investment choice for anyone wishing to live out rural dreams or add to an existing stable. The Joy of Keeping Goats offers practical advice, clear guidelines, and wonderful anecdotes from author and self-sustainer Laura Childs. In her book, she walks readers step-by-step through important information on breeds, feeding requirements, how to make cheese, and much more. With gorgeous color photographs, The Joy of Keeping Goats clearly illustrates what an easy and rewarding experience raising goats can be.

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What's the difference between a weanling and a yearling, or a farrow and a barrow? Country and city mice alike will delight in Julia Rothman's charming illustrated guide to the curious parts and pieces of rural living. Dissecting everything from tractors and pigs to fences, hay bales, crop rotation patterns, and farm tools, Rothman gives a richly entertaining tour of the quirky details of country life. From the shapes of squash varieties to the parts of a goat; from how a barn is constructed to what makes up a beehive, every corner of the barnyard is uncovered and celebrated. A perfect gift for gardeners, locavores, homesteaders, and country-living enthusiasts alike.

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The urban landscape has swallowed vast swaths of prime farmland across North America. Imagine how much more self-reliant our communities would be if 30 million acres of lawns were made productive again. Permaculture is a practical way to apply ecological design principles to food, housing, and energy systems; making growing fruits, vegetables and livestock easier and more sustainable.

The Permaculture Handbook is a step-by-step, beautifully illustrated guide to creating resilient and prosperous households and neighborhoods, complemented by extensive case studies of three successful farmsteads and market gardens. This comprehensive manual casts garden farming as both an economic opportunity and a strategy for living well with less money. It shows how, by mimicking the intelligence of nature and applying appropriate technologies such as solar and environmental design, permaculture can:

• Create an abundance of fresh, nourishing local produce
• Reduce dependence on expensive, polluting fossil fuels
• Drought-proof our cities and countryside
• Convert waste into wealth

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The definition of a chicken tractor has evolved to mean employing your chickens skill-sets in a variety of different tasks that benefit you, your garden and yard. The chickens peck and scratch the soil to clean your beds, eat pest bugs and weed seeds, and fertilize the beds with their manure. Best of all, they provide eggs and meat with that old-fashioned flavor and homegrown goodness.

Expanded, updated and even more detailed. Learn how to raise homestead flocks for eggs, meat and money. Loads of photos and diagrams make important information visual and easy to understand.

Process birds in your backyard with exact, step-by-step explanations. Over 50 processing photos and diagrams—to let you do it right, efficiently and humanely each and every time.

This incredibly popular hands-on book is a grass-roots best seller. It has helped thousands of folks have better gardens and has rekindled an interest in the backyard flocks and heritage breeds of poultry. It has literally, changed the lives of millions of chickens all over the world by taking them out of factory farms, and putting in the gardens where they are happier, more productive and healthier.

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You don’t need acres of land to keep a cow healthy, happy and productive. You can raise one right in your own backyard, producing more than enough milk for a single family - up to six gallons per day! The Backyard Cow covers everything you need to know, from selecting the right breed to understanding your cow’s behavior; providing shelter, health care, and daily maintenance; grooming; milking; and making cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products from your milk.