The Small-Scale Poultry Flock

"There is a revolution going on, and it is the popular return of keeping poultry to provide food for our home tables. Ussery's The Small-Scale Poultry Flock helps lead the way by integrating the small flock with its natural environment, the homestead, or small farm. Nowhere else will you find such valuable information on putting poultry to work in the garden, producing much of their feed, and producing healthful food for ourselves."

—Don Schrider, author of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy's Chicken Assessment for Improving Productivity and Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys (2nd Ed.)

With information on building soil fertility, replacing purchased feed, and working with poultry in the garden.

The most comprehensive and definitive guide to date on raising all-natural poultry, for homesteaders or farmers seeking to close their loop, The Small-Scale Poultry Flock offers a practical and integrative model for working with chickens and other domestic fowl, based entirely on natural systems. Including extensive information on:

• Formulating and making your own feed
• How to breed and brood the flock (for breed improvement and for genetic conservation), including the most complete guide to working with broody hens available anywhere
• Providing more of the flock’s feed from sources grown or self-foraged on the home place, including production of live protein feeds using earthworms and soldier grubs
• Using poultry to increase soil fertility, control crop-damaging insects, and tmake compost—including systems for pasturing and tillage of cover crops and weeds
• Step-by-step butchering—one of the best guides available—complete with extensive illustrative photos.

No other book on raising poultry takes an entirely whole-systems approach, nor discusses producing homegrown feed and breeding in such detail. This is a truly invaluable and groundbreaking guide that will lead farmers and homesteaders into a new world of self-reliance and enjoyment.

About the Author

Harvey Ussery

Harvey Ussery has been developing his whole-systems poultry husbandry for decades and has been writing about chickens and other fowl for Backyard Poultry since the inception of the magazine in early 2006. He has also written numerous articles for Mother Earth News and Countryside & Small Stock Journal, and has published in American Pastured Poultry Producers Association's newsletter, Grit!, over the years. Ussery has presented at national and local events on poultry, homesteading, and energy and sustainability issues, and maintains a highly informative website, TheModernHomestead.US. He lives with his wife, Ellen, in Virginia. ...

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