J. H. Florea

"ABC" contains no dates, and virtually no geography. It is written from a weird, timeless, ethnocentric point of view as if chickens were invented in around 1944 somewhere in the United States of America. There is virtually no explanation of the scientific principles behind the advice given, and to be fair, the Preface warns that this will be the method. As the Preface says: "The 'what to do' is emphasized rather than the technical reasons ..." Who thought that you could dumb down a book about chickens, but Florea has accomplished just that, with his folksy ramblings about what "poultrymen" usually do. (I guess he doesn't think women raise chickens!) There are many problems with this book. For one example, the diagrams in chapter 3 for buildings and equipment are incomprehensible. But worse, the recommendation for de-beaking on page 92 betrays the fundamentally inhumane approach to raising animals -- which of course is the foundation of modern factory farms. (See page 120 - "you will want to consider using the cage system of housing and managing hens") I have raised chickens, and seen them raised, and de-beaking is simply not necessary, unless you are a sadist. I am waiting for my copy of Pastured Poultry Profits by Joel Salatin (that my wife ordered for my birthday). I am hoping for something a little more enlightened than this depressing, lazy, out-dated and poorly written book. I give it one star, (rather than no stars), not because of the information about poultry farming, but because of the strange lack of perspective in time or space. For that reason it is wierdly fascinating - a tour into the mind of an American chicken farmer from a particular time and place, who appears to know or care about nothing else.… (más)