Photography by Kate Baldwin
Call me crazy, but I have always wanted to keep a few chickens in my garden. I honestly don't know what it is about them I love, I just do. They strike me as real characters full of personality.
Growing up my family had a typical array of pets: dogs, cats, even a few rabbits. The closest we ever came to chickens was tiny budgie birds. My favourite was a blue and white budgie we called "Snowy". He or perhaps she, we could never figure out how to tell which Snowy was, liked to land on your shoulder and chew on the ends of your hair.
Though I have always wanted to have two or three chickens as pets, my experience with livestock is non-existent. I know absolutely nothing about them and so I have put this ambition of mine to one side for years. Caring for a live animal or bird is not something you would want to mess up! You would definitely want your chickens to be well-fed, clean and cared-for. And of course you need to worry about things like predators. It would be devastating to wake up one morning and find that a raccoon or some other animal had devastated your chicken coop.
Then last month, I was visiting blogs when I came across Kylee Baumle's review of Free-Range Chicken Gardens by Jessi Bloom. I was so excited! It was as if the book had been written just for me. Of course I had to rush out and get a copy. I have been slowly reading it ever since.
Photography by Kate Baldwin
Photography by Kate Baldwin
Take a look at these very posh digs! Already I have started to think about what my own chicken coop might look like.
One of the biggest surprises in the book was to discover that chickens can be trained. Who knew! Not me anyways. Apparently they are quick learners and can be taught basic commands by using food as a reward.
Photography by Kate Baldwin
If, like me, you would love to have a few chickens in your garden, then this is the reference book for you.
This is a short YouTube video about the book.
To thank me for my interest in Free-Range Chicken Gardens, Timber press has kindly agreed to send a copy of the book to one lucky reader. If you would like to be included in the draw for the copy of Free-Range Chicken Gardens, please leave a comment below. If you are too shy to leave a comment, but would still like to be included, please feel free to drop me a line by email and I will be glad to include your name in the draw.
I will leave the contest open for a full week (until next Sunday 12am my time) and will do a draw early the following week.
Many thanks to Timber Press for providing a book for this giveaway. Good luck everyone!
I am going to link this post to Holley's monthly book review party. To discover some other really great gardening themed books, be sure to click the link: Roses and Other Gardening Joys.
About the Author and Photographer:
Jessi Bloom is an award-winning landscape designer whose work emphasizes ecological systems, sustainability and self-sufficiency. She is a certified arborist, as well as a long-time chicken owner with a free-range flock in her own home garden.
Visit the author's website here: nwbloom.com.
Kate Baldwin (right) is a food and lifestyle photographer living in Seattle.
Find more of her beautiful photography on her website: www.katebaldwinphotography.com
Photo credits this post: All photographs marked with a copyright are by Kate Baldwin and have been used with kind permission from Timber Press.
