Eleven Essential Books for the Poultier’s Library

By Kermit Blackwood

(1) How to Raise Poultry — Christine Heinrichs
A practical guide to chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guineafowl, peafowl, pheasants, quail, pigeons, and ratites.

(2) The Small-Scale Poultry Flock — Harvey Ussery
Connects flock care with feeding, breeding, ranging, household food production, and land.

(3) The Chicken Health Handbook — Gail Damerow
A working reference for illness, injury, parasites, nutrition, and flock observation.

(4) Comparative Avian Nutrition — Kirk C. Klasing
A scientific foundation for avian digestion, nutrient use, allocation, and physiological ecology.

(5) Comparative Animal Nutrition and Metabolism — Peter R. Cheeke and Ellen S. Dierenfeld
Places avian nutrition within a wider comparative understanding of animal digestion and metabolism.

(6) King Solomon’s Ring — Konrad Lorenz
An accessible introduction to social behavior, communication, imprinting, and close observation.

(7) The Study of Instinct — Niko Tinbergen
A foundational work examining the causes, development, function, and evolution of behavior.

(8) For the Love of Soil — Nicole Masters
A practical guide to soil function, biological assessment, minerals, roots, and microbial communities.

(9) Dirt to Soil — Gabe Brown
A field account of restoring land through cover, living roots, livestock, and biological diversity.

(10) The Hidden Half of Nature — David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé
Explains the microbial relationships connecting soil, plants, animals, food, and health.

(12) What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World’s Most Familiar Bird — Sy Montgomery
An explanation of the special relationship between humans and chickens.