The one to read before you buy a single chick. John Vivian takes the whole business of keeping hens for eggs and gets it down to thirty-two pages that a beginner can finish in a sitting and then actually act on.

He starts where you have to start: which breeds suit which goals, because a bird bred for eggs is not the bird bred for the pot. Then brooding and early care, the part where new keepers lose chicks. Then the henhouse itself, nest boxes, roosts and feeders. Then feed, including what you can make yourself. Then where to find a hatchery worth ordering from.

Storey has been publishing these Country Wisdom Bulletins since 1973, and this is one of the originals. Compact, plain-spoken, and the sort of thing that ends up stained and dog-eared in a coat pocket.