Showing titles in Agricultural & Food Sciences

Are you passionate about sustainable living but unsure how to start a backyard chicken flock? Do you dream of gathering fresh eggs every morning but feel overwhelmed by coop design and daily care? You’re not alone, but with the right guidance, raising chickens can be simple and rewarding. Raising Chickens for Beginners is your ultimate step-by-step guide to backyard chicken keeping—from coop design and feeding to healthcare and egg collection. It’s time to take the leap and experience the benefits of raising your own chickens!

‘A must read for all wildlife lovers’ Dominic Dyer Foxes, buzzards, crows, badgers, weasels, seals, kites – Britain and Ireland’s predators are impressive and diverse and they capture our collective imagination. But many consider them to our competition, even our enemies. The problem is...

Here's what you'll learn from these two books about growing vegetables and herbs in grow tents and hydroponic garden towers. 1. Optimal Environmental Control Grow Tents: You'll master how to create and maintain the perfect growing environment, including controlling temperature, humidity, and light cycles, ensuring your plants thrive year-round. Hydroponic Garden Towers: Learn to fine-tune water pH, nutrient solutions, and oxygen levels for each stage of plant growth, maximizing yields and health. 2. Efficient Space Utilization Grow Tents: Discover strategies to maximize limited indoor space...

After years of working at the ends of the earth in human rights and development, Brent Preston and his wife were die-hard city dwellers. But when their second child arrived, the shine came off urban living. In 2003, they bought a hundred acres and a rundown farmhouse and set out to build a real farm, one that would sustain their family, nourish their community, heal their environment, and turn a profit.

How to raise strong and healthy farm animals: three books in one: How to Raise Strong & Healthy Ducks, How to Raise Strong & Healthy Pigs, and How to Raise Strong & Healthy Chickens.

Do you feel overwhelmed by unreliable online information while trying to embark on your dream of self-sufficient living? Are you anxious about navigating the complexities of food production, raising livestock, or emergency preparedness? Feel daunted by the idea of starting with limited space or budget? Worried about balancing time or lacking experience?

For many outsiders, the word “ranching” conjures romantic images of riding on horseback through rolling grasslands while living and working against a backdrop of breathtaking mountain vistas. In this absorbing memoir of life in the Wyoming high country, Mary Budd Flitner offers a more authentic glimpse into the daily realities of ranch life - and what it takes to survive in the ranching world. Some of Flitner’s recollections are humorous and lighthearted. Others take a darker turn.

What if self-sufficiency didn’t require 40 acres, a tractor, and quitting your job? Modern homesteading isn’t about escaping society. It’s about reclaiming control over your food, your finances, your resilience, and your future. In this practical, beginner-friendly guide, you’ll discover how to build a self-sufficient lifestyle no matter where you live. Whether you’re in a suburban neighborhood, a small backyard, or even an apartment with a balcony, this book shows you how to start exactly where you are and grow from there. Inside, you’ll learn how to: Develop the modern ...

The energies in fertilizers and in the cosmos do not often move needles, but they preside over crop production. As this books shows the reader, through learning to tap and use "life-force energy" it is possible to develop farming practices that are both high-quality and nondestructive to the environment. Since high sugar and mineral levels confer immunity against bacterial, insect and fungal crop destroyers, a complete BRIX chart on crops is included. Andersen's chapters outline in detail the difference between deadly slow-kill agribusiness farming and farming as it should be.

This practical guide gives you easy-to-follow and customizable plans for building the backyard chicken coop that works best for you. You'll get the basic construction know-how and key information you need to design and build a coop tailored to your flock, whether you live in a small city loft, a suburban backyard, or a small rural farm.

Have you ever watched a horse flick her tail or had a dog greet you at your door and known in your heart that the animal was exhibiting something more than simple instinctual responses? If so, you must read this book. In it Vicki Hearne asserts that animals that interact with humans are more intelligent than we assume. In fact, they are capable of developing an understanding of "the good", a moral code that influences their motives and actions. Hearne’s thorough studies led her to adopt a new system of animal training that contradicts modern animal behavioral research, but - as her examples show - is astonishingly effective.

Filled with catchall research, American Hemp examines what this new domestic crop can be used for, what makes it a superior product, and what made it illegal in the first place; the book also delves into the many health and medical benefits of the plant. Hobbs weighs in on how hemp can improve existing industries, from farming to energy to 3D printing, plus how it can make a serious impact on climate change by removing toxins from the soil and by decreasing our dependence on plastics and fossil fuels.

Refrigerated Trucks: How Mobile Cooling Changed the World The Invention, Science, and Global Impact of the Chilled Supply Chain How did supermarkets become able to offer fresh produce in every season? How do hospitals receive vaccines and blood products that must remain within narrow temperature ranges? And how do farms, warehouses, and grocery stores stay linked together across thousands of miles? The answer is the refrigerated truck. This book explains the development of the mobile cold chain, beginning with ice harvesting and refrigerated railcars and continuing through the invention of ...

Discover the secret to sustainable beekeeping and start your hive with confidence—even if you’ve never tended bees before! Have you ever dreamed of having buzzing beehive boxes filled with healthy, thriving bees in your backyard or urban garden, producing delicious homegrown honey? Are you passionate about supporting pollinators but unsure where to begin, what equipment you need, or how to ensure your bees stay healthy year-round? If so, The Beekeeping for Beginners Solution is your ultimate guide. Designed to simplify the process and empower aspiring beekeepers, this book combines ...

All over the world, sunflowers grow in ditches, farm fields, and yards. They tower over the surrounding plants, their strong stems supporting the weight of their heads as they steadily rotate throughout the long summer days, always facing the sun as they bring joy to everyone who spots them. Sunflowers have the distinction of being one of the world’s happiest flowers. They have become a symbol of happiness, unity, and faith throughout the years. Whether you are an experienced sunflower grower, someone who has always been curious about sunflowers, or an author who would like to incorporate...

Hugelkultur, also sometimes referred to as hugel bed, is a permaculture gardening technique for growing vegetables in heaps made from timber and covered over with topsoil. In this short introduction to a well established but little known growing concept, you will discover what it involves and how it can be used to great advantage particularly in dry arid regions. With a proper understanding and application of this simple technique, vegetables can be grown with minimum irrigation—and less backache!

From Michael Pollan to locavores, Whole Foods to farmers' markets, today cooks and foodies alike are paying more attention than ever before to the history of the food they bring into their kitchens - and especially to vegetables. Whether it’s an heirloom tomato, curled cabbage, or succulent squash, from a farmers' market or a backyard plot, the humble vegetable offers more than just nutrition - it also represents a link with long tradition of farming and gardening, nurturing and breeding. In this charming new book, those veggies finally get their due.

Fresh eggs, tasty meat, and the joy of watching life develop in your own backyard...Why wouldn't you keep chickens? Raising chickens comes with surprising benefits for the whole family, from encouraging healthier living, to entertaining the kids, to fertilizing the garden. What’s more, it’s refreshingly easy to do, and once you know the ins and outs, chickens are surprisingly low maintenance. In Raising Chickens in Your Backyard, you’ll find everything you need to know about raising chickens broken down into easy-to-understand steps.

Do you know ... how to grow great alfalfa and other forages? How can a healthy stand of alfalfa be established? What is most important in promoting vigorous forage growth - soil life, weed control, or balanced soil fertility? Is high potassium necessary for high quality? Does high tonnage automatically mean good feed for livestock? When should forages be cut - pre-bloom, first bloom, mid bloom? How can you measure forage quality? This book has these answers and more!

Within a decade, nearly half of all American farmland will change hands as an older generation of farmers steps aside. In their place, a groundswell of new growers will face numerous challenges, including soil degradation, insufficient income, and investors devouring farmland at a staggering pace.