Chickens ... getting started

This is for all of you planning to do it (Randy and Mikyla) or any of you who may be tempted. I figured I could provide some lessons learned.

We started with a crazy idea, then moved to books. As we learned more, the idea became less crazy.

The best books I found were the following:

1. Keep chickens! : tending small flocks in cities, suburbs, and other small spaces by Barbara Kilarski, who happens to keep her chickens in Portland.  
2. Hen and the art of chicken maintenance : reflections on keeping chickens by Martin Gurdon, a Brit who wrote a hilarious account despite having lots of chicken health issues that we hope to avoid. His chicken physical therapy was ingenious.  
3. Still life with chickens : starting over in a house by the sea by Catherine Goldhammer was entertaining, but basically chick lit (no pun intended). However, it had an extensive introduction to keeping baby chicks alive and well.  
4. Pocketful of Poultry by Carol Ekarius is a wonderful little encyclopedia of chicken breeds, but it will make you yearn for breeds that you will never find and can never have. As it turns out, most anyplace that ships chicks will only ship 20 or 25 at a time, so unless you want to start a production farm, buy local. 

BTW, I wouldn't advise buying any any of these books. Even I (who love to buy and own books) have found that THIS is what libraries are really for. And the Corvallis public library has a huge collection of chicken books. Who knew?