Book Review: Fresh Eggs Daily

Fresh Eggs Daily
Raising Happy, Healthy Chickens...Naturally
by Lisa Steele

160 pages
St. Lynn's Press, 2013
List price: $17.95

With Chick Days upon us, there's no better time to choose a guide for keeping backyard chickens. I've read a few books on the subject and I've had backyard chickens of my own for several years now, but there's always something new to learn about the process.

Lisa Steele is the author of the popular blog, Fresh Eggs Daily, and shares her chicken-keeping expertise in her book of the same name. A big proponent of holistic ways, Lisa lists the ways that herbs and other plants are beneficial and a crucial element in raising healthy chickens the natural way.

Chapters explore numerous aspects of importance to those who are either thinking of acquiring some chickens or those who already have their own: the brooder, coop, nesting boxes, run, feed, water, molting, diseases and pests, and a host of other topics. There are how-to instructions for making your own brooder and an easy peasy hanging treat feeder that I think I'll make for our hens. Recipes are included for suet blocks, molt muffins and frozen fruit and mint pops!

For beginners, reading this book might make chicken keeping seem more involved than it is (or at least more involved than it has to be), but Lisa clearly knows her chickens and no doubt every chicken I know would love to live in her coop. I'll be paying much more attention to a few details with my own chickens as a result of reading Fresh Eggs Daily. It's probably the most clear, concise guide to keeping backyard chickens I've read.

Lisa Steele writes for Community Chickens, Tractor Supply's Out Here magazine, Hobby Farm Home, Grit online, and is a book reviewer for Mother Earth News. She blogs at Fresh Eggs Daily.

Read more garden book reviews.
Read Kylee Baumle’s blog, Our Little Acre.