I have a contract with Chelsea Green Publishing—publisher of some of the sustainability/self-sufficiency books I use most (Eliot Coleman, Gene Logsdon, and others)—to write a book about “poultry for the ambitious homesteader.” The working title is The Modern Homestead Poultry Flock. This book will not be just another “backyard chicken how-to,” but will help the reader place the homestead flock at the very center of the food self-sufficiency enterprise. The book will describe how to use the homestead flock to help with real work such as composting, tillage, and insect control. It will emphasize reliance on natural methods and solutions for health; and will explore the many ways we can produce more of the flock’s feed from home resources. It will be targeted at an intermediate level of experience, but also toward the ambitious beginner seeking a larger vision for the backyard flock. Most of the ideas presented in the book will be capable of being scaled either up or down, so will be relevant to “flocksters” with flocks of any size. A section on serving small local egg and dressed poultry markets should appeal to those who have mastered the challenges of producing all their own poultry products, and would like to expand the scale of their operations. Exploration of this website will give you an idea of the breadth and depth at which I want to work, in order to offer the reader a holistic approach to poultry management on the modern homestead. Wish me luck as I do the writing! ~Harvey, February 2010