My brain thoughts are full of chickens.

I bought this book:
The Chicken Whisperer's Guide To Keeping Chickens

And I am very happy with it.  Then I decided to check out my local library to see what they had to offer in the way of chicken books.  I have 6 on hold, 4 of which are being transferred to my nearest library from other libraries around the county.  I'M SO EXCITED!  The two I have been able to check out so far are as follows:
Back To Basics Complete Guide to Raising Chickens
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens: Care/Feeding/Facilities

I really love the Back to Basics guide.  It's great.  It is easy to read and understand, and has a lot of information in it.  One thing I learned from it off of the top of my head is that avocado skins and pits can be poisonous to chickens, so when giving them table scraps you should just add those items to your compost pile.  Good to know!  I would have killed our chickens.  The book has a lot of information on different breeds, as well.  Which I found really helpful.  Specifics on egg production, broiler chicken choices, colors, size, temperament, weight, etc.  It even helped me realize that if I want more than like, 2 eggs a week (eggaggerating here...ha, get it?!), I want more breed variation in my flock than just silkies.  Now I'm thinking I may want an easter egger, a wyandotte, a silkie, and maybe an australorp or something.  I don't know.  I like the bantam chickens.  We'll have to see.  I may change my mind again.

I'm not loving the Storey's guide as much as I thought I would.  I also just realized though, by looking at amazon.com, that there is a much newer version than the one I am currently reading.  The one that is linked up above is from 1995.  The new one was copyrighted in 2010.  I may have to try to get my hands on the newer one.  It's not that there is a lack of info in it or anything, it's just not as friendly-like as the other 2 books.  And the breed selection chapter is hard for me to really read and get into.  I don't know.  I'm trying to sort out the whole Chicken Tractor thing.  Grass?  Poop?  Good?  Bad?  Indifferent?  I just don't know.

The Chicken Whisperer's guide, as I said above, is great as well.  It's a nice, glossy, colorful book with pretty pictures and set up in an easy to read format.  It could have more information in it, but it's a nice beginners guide.  It also has lots of good breed info.  With pics!  And I love pictures.  I need pictures.

The website of the week for me has been www.mypetchicken.com.  They sell chicks!  One day old--and they can send you female babies!  I love it.  I have been window shopping.  I think they are pretty much sold out for this year though of most of their chickens.  I may have to wait until Feb to get babies.  Which means that we won't have eggs until August 2013!  Wooooaaaaah!  I guess it's good though.  Gives us some time to get a coop together, figure out how much feed and stuff is going to cost.  And gives me time to try to start getting up at 6:30 or so every day so I can have time to collect eggs, feed and water the chicks, etc.  Plus shower and all that jazz.  And we need to build our chicken tractor!  Carson LOVES when we say "Chicken Tractor".  He cracks up.  SO CUTE.  I love him more than the sun and the moon and the earth and all of the oxygen.

My next post will probably be about the other books we have on hold when they come in :)  Oh yeah--and I think chickens are going to be legal in Brevard county, FL soon!  WOO HOO!  Thank you, local farmers and supporters of the chicken movement!