Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance: Reflections on a Life of Raising Chickens

This is a book about keeping chickens, but it is also a feather-clad soap opera of primal urges. Martin Gurdon’s hilarious ‘chicken memoir’ relives the highs and lows of chicken ownership. Written from firsthand experience, its pages are filled with the quest for absolute power, sex, death, jealousy, gender-bending, and huge vet bills. You'll meet a cast of unusual characters, from the frightening disciplinary measures of Bossy Chicken and the maternal instincts of Psycho Chicken, to the bizarre tales of Mike the headless chicken from Colorado and the physical rehabilitation and sexual transformation of Yvette. Beyond all the intrigue and drama, however, there are even some practical lessons to be learned about what not to do when keeping chickens. The relationship between bird and human is by turns heartwarming and bewildering, but it is always entertaining. Inside Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance, Updated Second Edition: The Hows and Whys; Preparation; First Flock; Hens at Home; The Bird that Turned; Lost and Found; Mike, the Headless Chicken; In Sickness and in Health; Confused of Kent; The Boys; The Girls, The Birds, Eggs and a Potted History; Mrs Brown; What Happened Next?; Wonky and Company; Old and New. Martin Gurdon is a freelance journalist, author and editor. He shares his garden with chickens, doves and ducks and was a little surprised to discover that their lives made good copy, thanks to a massive increase in amateur chicken keeping. He wrote a regular column about the birds for the Sunday Telegraph's Life supplement, is a regular columnist and contributor to Your Chickens magazine, and blogs on the www.allotment.org.uk website. He has also written regularly for the Evening Standard, The Independent, Daily Telegraph, Octane and Classic Cars magazine.