The Dollar Hen: The Classic Guide to American Free-Range Egg Farming

This book will help anyone who thinks about using poultry for a business. The author covers the economical and practical side of the business. Even though this book was written in the early 1900s, the principles of the poultry business are still the same. The author also offers tips on how to help the hobby poultry farmer make the best use of his/her land.I would love to see someone write a modern day version of this kind of book.

We started raising chickens about 8 years ago and without this book we may have failed in our endeavor. It was a good read and very helpful

This book was originally written in 1907, but for the wannabe serious poultry farmer, it still makes excellent sense. The author was a poultryman at the Kansas Experiment Station, and later in charge of the commerical poultry investigation of the USDA. He had investigated every aspect of the poultry industry before writing this book, which specifically addresses itself to the individual chicken farmers, not the commercialized big industry.I bought the book because I wanted to raise, organically, a small flock for healthy eggs and meat, and, if possible, make it pay for itself in sales as well. His book is the best I've found that deals with the entirety of housing, feeding, hatching chicks, and making money as well as feeding your own family.He gets right down to the fundamentals, which is what you'll need to know. It's a good book to read and keep as reference. You won't be sorry if you buy it.

Easy read and filled with time-honored traditions of free-range, simplistic way for egg farming with notations of today's standards or references. Feeding, diseases, incubation, housing, marketing, quality of eggs, etc. you will find a wealth of good information. Definitely a must read resource.

As a newcomer to the age old art of cicken husbandry, (and I don't even know if that is the correct term)this book is the one to read for those who adore chickens, their behaviors and beauty. After beginning with a lot of books that take a whisical view of how much fun it can be I have settled on this little book because of the costs involved in raising chickens. Farmers always try to find economical and better ways to do things and this little book from the past is a gem of practical advice.In order for chickens to produce delicious and nutritious eggs there are many costs and procedures involved. There never seem to be definitive answers about how to raise chickens but to do it well with the least amount of cost is the goal. Having an economic view of raising chickens is an important part of the art even from a hobbist standpoint and does not detract from the enjoyment but actually enhances it. Anyone who reads Robert Plamadon knows how well he regards this book. Not ony did he discover and revive it, he now has newbies like myself, promoting it.

Mr. Plamondon has taken a 1909 classic and edited it to reflect modern advances while maintaining the common sense basis of the original. His comments are bolded at the bottom of the page where needed. The original text is maintained allowing the reader to see how pastured poultry farming was done almost a hundred years ago. Recommended reading for anyone either raising free-range poultry or considering it.

This book is full of the wisdom of chicken farmers of days long gone, before factory farms took over the "business" of raising chickens. Much of that old wisdom was nearly lost. Thankfully, it is now being re-introduced (with some helpful editing by Robert Plamondon to bring some information up to date)to a new generation of chicken lovers and chicken farmers.Thanks once again to Robert Plamondon and Norton Creek Press for re-printing these delightful and very helpful books!

This book is a wonderful history lesson through the world of raising chickens. Although many of the challenges our grandfathers faced, such as travel to market and fresh storage have changed through the years, many of the basics of fresh egg production have remained the same.We are finding that the old ways of growing chickens in the open air are better and healthier than the mega-farms so common today, and this is the book that outlines those old ways in a clear manner.Through reading this book I have been given a lot to think about as I plan my future with chickens. The author shows the profits and losses clearly and removes much of the 'romantic' idea of rearing fowl.