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From the Back CoverThe Best Breakfast You’ll Ever Eat, Courtesy of Your Backyard Animals: Gather fresh eggs for fluffy omelets. Stuff homemade sausages with meat. Fill your omelet with tangy, creamy cheese. Stir sweet honey into tea or coffee. Fry a steak or bacon as a savory side. Top off your meal with a cold glass of milk. Breakfast isn’t the only meal you’ll take pleasure in from your backyard farm… Imagine the gratification of feeding your family wholesome eggs, milk, meat, and honey produced by animals raised organically and humanely in your backyard. On as little land as one-tenth of an acre, you may raise healthy, procreative barnyard animals and take a big step toward feed independence. Learn how to: Raise chickens in brooder boxes Determine the freshness of eggs concealed in the backyard Roast a duck or goose to perfection Make goat-milk yogurt Interpret daily sheep behavior Harvest honey Raise your own Thanksgiving turkey Manage your beef cattle to give rise to the best-tasting meat Includes Full-Color at-a-Glance Breed Guide The animal-raising associate to The Backyard Homestead. About the AuthorGail Damerow and her husband operate a family farm in Tennessee, where they keep poultry and dairy goats, tend a sizable garden, and maintain a little orchard. Damerow has written broad on raising livestock and is a regular contributor to Backyard Poultry magazine. She is the author of Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, The Chicken Encyclopedia, The Chicken Health Handbook, Your Chickens, Your Goats, Draft Horses and Mules, and numerous other books.

Choosing Good Meats Photo

Choosing Good Meats Image

Choosing Good Meats Picture

Most helpful customer reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Nice reference for small-scale farm animal raising
By Kristi C.
I am a big supporter of buying local, and while I do not live in an area where I can own most of these animals (except bees, currently), I found this resource to be comprehensive for someone either researching or getting started in small-scale farm animal raising.

Gail Damerow puts together a well-researched book on various farm animals that could be owned by people looking to find raise animals for food, but who do not necessarily have the space for a full farm. Each chapter takes a different animal and discusses what you may want to look for in breeds, housing, feed and basic health care for them. For instance, in the chapter on chickens there is a section on different breeds, how to collect eggs and check if they are good for eating, feeding, watering and housing your chickens, handling chickens in the coop and transporting them, and general health concerns. Additional chapters on other poultry such as turkeys and ducks follow.

Poultry isn’t the only meat souce in this book. It includes from the smaller “keep a couple in your garage” rabbits to pigs to cows. Sections on the various cuts from the animals are listed, but no need to worry about the details of butchering. Those are recommended to be left to actual processors or other books. The chapters on milk providers, goats and cows, give general descriptions on breeding and milking the animals.

Beyond the individual animal chapters, I like the extras that are included. Similar to its predecessor, The Backyard Homestead, there are illustrations in the front showing how much you can actually support on one-tenth, one-fourth, or one-half an acre of land. The glossary is extensive but not overwhelming, the black and white line illustrations are descriptive and meaningful to the text, and the resources in the back supplement the strong foundation this reference creates.

The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals is a great source of information on chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, rabbits, goats, sheep, cattle, pigs and honey bees, all of which are quite suitable to the suburban, or, if you are fortunate enough to have zoning laws in your favor, urban resident. If you are looking into owning any of these animals, I definitely recommend adding this to your shelf.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Never thought I’d like it – but I do!
By happymommi
I bought this book with a giftcard and probably would have never bought it had I not – but I’m surprising pleased. It has a nice thourogh overview over several popular backyard animals. The chick care is good although it refers you to Gail’s other book on raising chicks for more in-depth stuff (like incubating eggs at home.) I loved the section on goats and learned some new things that I didn’t know before – even after owning one, going through kidding with her and now milking her for 4 months, which I think is impresive. There is also a full color pull out poster type chart in the middle of the book which I think is a nice touch – it helps to see and read sometimes. I am very glad I have this book and have learned alot from it. I have had it stacked with my encyclopedia of country living by Carla Emery which says a lot – however, I won’t compare those books, it is a good book to add to your library.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
A good overview
By itsjustme
The Backyard Homestead is probably the best book available for those who’d like to become more self-sufficient when it comes to food. As you can see from my review of the book (here), most of that volume is dedicated to growing vegetables; there is far less information on raising livestock. However, the same publisher recently released The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals; this is unquestionably the best book on the market for those in the suburbs or country who like the idea of raising animals for eggs, milk, and meat, but aren’t sure where to start.

The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals consists of one chapter each covering the topic of chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese, rabbits, bees, goats, sheep, pigs, and cows. Each chapter lays out the basics of how to raise the animal, including housing and feeding requirements, and how to keep the critters healthy. There are also tips on choosing an appropriate breed, keeping predators at bay, and general ideas on whether or not you’re likely to save money raising your own.

The editor, Gail Damerow, also offers a visual on how much room is needed to raise certain animals through three drawings at the front of the book. Each offers an idea of how a homestead could proceed, showing how properties (each with a typical house and a veggie garden) could be laid out. For example, on the smallest property (1/10th of an acre), bees, rabbits, and chickens are shown. On the largest property (1/2 an acre), bees, rabbits, pigs, waterfowl, poultry, and 1 cow or 2 steers and either 2 goats or 2 lambs, are suggested.

At the center of the book is a folded color chart picturing the most common breeds raised for food; while this is pretty, I didn’t find it very useful – although I did like how some small silhouettes at the bottom of the chart give an idea of the size of each breed mentioned. Aside from this, my only real complaint about the book is that it rarely address difficulties urban homesteaders face, like coming up with space, keeping kids safe, and addressing the concerns of neighbors.

But despite certain limitations, this is still is the best book I’ve found on the topic. It’s clearly not meant to be the only book you’ll want on how to raise your backyard livestock. You can and should read as many books as possible on how to raise the animals you select. But The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals is an great one stop source for making decisions about which animals you can – in all practicality – raise in the suburbs or country. I recommend it!

Kristina Seleshanko, Proverbs Thirty One Woman

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