More than ever, Americans care about the quality and safety of the food they eat. They're bringing back an American tradition: raising backyard chickens for eggs, meat, fun, or profit. Chickens in Your Backyard has been the go to guide of chicken care for over 40 years. This revised and updated edition covers all the basics to turn your backyard into a happy homestead-from incubating, raising, housing, and feeding, through treating disease and raising chickens for show. Given some freedom and attention, these birds can become much more than the egg-and-meat machines of commercial hatcheries and broiler factories. Chickens provide backyard farmers with enjoyable pastime, as well as a supply of good food. About Rodale Classics: The new Rodale Classics line is a revised and updated set of our most iconic and bestselling gardening titles. Rodale has been the category leader in organic methods for decades, and gardeners are consistently turning to our tried and true guides for reference. The company will continue to identify appropriate candidates for inclusion into the series in future seasons. The uniform branding and design on these covers will unite these books into a set, capitalizing on the strength and authority of the Rodale brand.

Tony Iley looks at the development of the working dog - focusing on the Collie - before describing the pup and its early training through to being a working dog. As a shepherd who has competed at trials for many years his chapter on trials is very illuminating. He also describes what to look out for in the breeding and selection of a dog. This book will be a delight, not just to those who are interested in sheep-dog trials, but anyone who wants a better insight into the wonderful relationship between a dog and his owner.

Does animal welfare have a place in sustainable farming, or do the demands of a rising human population and the threat of climate change mean that the interests of animals must be put aside? Can we improve the way we keep animals and still feed the world - or is it a choice between ethics and economics?

The aim of this book is to challenge the "them-and-us" thinking that sets the interests of humans and farm animals against each other and to show that to be really "sustainable," farming needs to include, not ignore, animal welfare. The authors of this remarkable book come from a diversity of backgrounds: industry, animal welfare organizations, academic institutions, and practical farming. They are united in arguing that farm animals matter and that sustainable farming must have animal welfare at its ethical core, along with the production of healthy, affordable food and care for the environment.

A compelling portrayal by the veteran journalist of the lives of farming communities on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border and the surprising connections between them "Conniff brings her skills and insights to a particularly urgent project: moving beyond the polarizing politics of our current era, and taking a deeper look at how people who have been pitted against each other can forge bonds of understanding." -E.J. Dionne Jr., co-author of 100% Democracy Winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel Award In the Midwest, Mexican workers have become critically important to the survival of rural areas and small towns-and to the individual farmers who rely on their work-with undocumented immigrants, mostly from Mexico, accounting for an estimated 80 percent of employees on the dairy farms of western Wisconsin. In Milked, former editor-in-chief of The Progressive Ruth Conniff introduces us to the migrants who worked on these dairy farms, their employers, among them white voters who helped elect Donald Trump to office in 2016, and the surprising friendships that have formed between these two groups of people. These stories offer a rich and fascinating account of how two crises-the record-breaking rate of farm bankruptcies in the Upper Midwest, and the contentious politics around immigration-are changing the landscape of rural America. A unique and fascinating exploration of rural farming communities, Milked sheds light on seismic shifts in policy on both sides of the border over recent decades, connecting issues of labor, immigration, race, food, economics, and U.S.-Mexico relations and revealing how two seemingly disparate groups of people have come to rely on each other, how they are subject to the same global economic forces, and how, ultimately, the bridges of understanding that they have built can lead us toward a more constructive politics and a better world.

Emerging Issues in Climate Smart Livestock Production: Biological Tools and Techniques furnishes a detailed reference on livestock sustainability and the role of biotechnology for creating more sustainable livestock production systems. The book is a collection of scientific techniques, including genetic engineering used to modify and improve animals, fishes, and microorganisms for human benefit. The book is particularly attractive for scientists, researchers, students, educators, and professionals in agriculture, veterinary, and biotechnology science. This book promotes several biotechnological approaches that can easily be evaluated in the field for quality assurance programs beneficial to producing livestock products and overall public health. Biotechnology has the potential to improve the productivity of animals via increased growth, carcass quality and reproduction, improved nutrition and feed utilization, improved food quality and safety, improved animal health and welfare, and reduced waste through more efficient utilization of resources.

This book provides empirical evidence from Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique and from different production systems of the importance of livestock as an asset to women and their participation in livestock and livestock product markets. It explores the issues of intra-household income management and economic benefits of livestock markets to women, focusing on how types of markets, the types of products and women's participation in markets influence their access to livestock income. The book further analyses the role of livestock ownership, especially women's ownership of livestock, in influencing household food security though increasing household dietary diversity and food adequacy. Additional issues addressed include access to resources, information and financial services to enable women more effectively to participate in livestock production and marketing, and some of the factors that influence this access. Practical strategies for increasing women's market participation and access to information and services are discussed. The book ends with recommendations on how to mainstream gender in livestock research and development if livestock are to serve as a pathway out of poverty for the poor and especially for women.

Global bee populations have been rapidly declining for years, and it's not just our honey supply that's at stake: bees' contribution to the pollination of various crops is essential to human survival. But even in industrial apiaries-the most common approach to facilitate the rebound of threatened bee populations-bees are in distress, hiving in synthetic and hostile environments. Enter idle beekeeping: the grassroots, low-intervention system of beekeeping that seeks to emulate the behavior and habitat of bees in the wild-and it only requires two active days of beekeeping per year. In The Idle Beekeeper, Bill Anderson calls upon his years of applied curiosity as an urban beekeeper to highlight the invaluable resources that these underappreciated insects provide and show how simple and rewarding beekeeping can be. In this entertaining, philosophical, and practical guide, Anderson teaches step-by-step how to build a hive system developed to allow maximum idleness, harvest honey and extract honeycomb, make mead and beeswax candles, and to closely observe and understand these most fascinating and productive of insects. Through his laissez-faire approach to maintaining a bee colony using the minimum-interference Warre hives-low-tech, low-maintenance, and bee-friendly hives that mimic the cavity of a tree, the bees' natural habitat-Anderson illustrates how little effort is actually required to raise and nurture a thriving bee community. In fact, his idle approach to beekeeping requires only two days of work per year-one day in the spring, and another in the fall. The Idle Beekeeper offers practical and philosophical advice for getting involved in conservation efforts, and Anderson's expertise will show just how easy it is to make an environmental impact. For anyone interested in keeping bees, The Idle Beekeeper is the definitive guide that teaches you everything you need to get started, even in a city, and without effort.

Sheep are the thread that runs through the history of the English countryside. Our fortunes were once founded on sheep, and this book tells a story of wool and money and history, of merchants and farmers and shepherds, of English yeomen and how they got their freedom, and above all, of the soil. Sheep have helped define our culture and topography, impacting on everything from accent and idiom, architecture, roads and waterways, to social progression and wealth. With his eye for the idiosyncratic, Philip meets the native breeds that thrive in this country; he tells stories about each breed, meets their shepherds and owners, learns about their past - and confronts the present realities of sheep farming. Along the way, Philip meets the people of the countryside and their many professions: the mole-catchers, the stick-makers, the tobacco-twisters and clog-wrights. He explores this artisan heritage as he re-discovers the countryside, and finds a lifestyle parallel to modern existence, struggling to remain unchanged - and at its heart, always sheep.

Fresh golden yolk eggs in ready supply, organic fertiliser for the vegetable garden-what's not to love about keeping backyard chickens? This handbook covers all you need to know to get started raising your very own flock of chickens. Whether you're considering getting chickens, or already have a few in the backyard, you will find answers to questions such as: what type of chicken suits your space; where to buy chickens; what to look for when buying chickens; what housing your chickens will require; what your chickens will eat and how to care for your chickens. Included are sections on chicken health, an easy reference breed list and directions on hatching chicks. Providing comprehensive and clear advice, Backyard Chickens offers not only the basics, but also a path into furthering your own interest in chickens by hatching and incubating your own.

In this issue of Veterinary Clinics: Food Animal Practice, Guest Editor Jeffery R. Applegate brings his considerable expertise to the topic of Honey Bee Veterinary Medicine. Top experts in the field cover key topics such as Apiculture, Diseases of the Honey Bee, Population Medicine, Immunology, Nutrition, and more. Provides in-depth, reviews in Honey Bee Veterinary Medicine, providing actionable insights for veterinary practice. Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field; Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create these timely topic-based reviews. Contains 15 relevant, practice-oriented topics including Pesticides and the Impact on Honey Bees; Practical Applications in Honey Bee Genetics; Foreign Pests and Diseases as Potential Threats to North American Apiculture; Honey Bee Welfare and Standards of Humane Euthanasia; and more.

The Evolutionary Ecology of Invasive Species offers new insights into the mechanisms that underlie rapid evolution in these species. The book provides a comprehensive overview of achievements in the field during the boom of information over the past two decades and includes discussions of possible future directions for the study of evolution in invasive species. Written by an international expert in invasion ecology, population genetics, and evolutionary biology, the book explores the roles of preadaptation, phenotypic plasticity, selection, and stochastic processes in driving rapid evolution. The book draws insights from a wide spectrum of invasive microbes, plants, and animals, covering many of the planet's biogeographic regions and discusses the evolutionary consequences for native species in response to biological invasions. A valuable resource to researchers and students in evolutionary biology, invasive species biology, and global change biology, this text suggests future research directions related to the evolutionary biology, impacts, and management of invasive species.

Dairy science includes the study of milk and milk-derived food products, examining the biological, chemical, physical, and microbiological aspects of milk itself, as well as the technological (processing) aspects of the transformation of milk into its various consumer products, including beverages, fermented products, concentrated and dried products, butter and ice cream. This encyclopedia includes information on the possible impact of genetic modification of dairy animals, safety concerns of raw milk and raw milk products, peptides in milk, dairy-based allergies, packaging and shelf-life and other topics of importance and interest to those in dairy research and industry. The Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences, Five Volume Set is the only work available that covers in detail the entirety of dairy science, from husbandry of dairy animals, milk production, through the processing of milk into a myriad of dairy products and ingredients, to the effect of dairy foods on human health. The third edition of Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences will retain the split that characterized the earlier editions - one-third primary production, two-thirds dairy food. Unlike earlier editions, in which articles were arranged in alphabetical order by topic, this edition will be optimally organized into 9 coherent sections. This new edition contains 500 articles, the vast majority of which has been significantly revised or is completely new. Only 40 chapters have been retained from the earlier edition as they cover basic science areas still relevant and important today. All articles have been reviewed by specialists in their area.

With coverage of basic animal science and livestock industry information as well as current issues in animal agriculture, the Ninth Edition of MODERN LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY PRODUCTION covers everything readers need to know about all phases and types of livestock production. Through updated visual aids, real-world applications, and comprehensive study tools, this engaging book provides readers with a solid understand of the anatomy, physiology, nutrition, feeding, and reproduction of multiple livestock and poultry breeds.

This book describes the methodology for predicting the genetic merit of animals in the context of genetic improvement in an animal breeding programme. Information on an animal and its relatives, on either the characteristic to be improved or from other traits, can be used to predict the animal's genetic merit, taking account of the relationships between measurements and the economic values of traits. The methodology is developed from first principles, without unnecessary detail or complexity, and all the required statistical and mathematical concepts are fully described in the book. The text discusses the methods for combining different sources of information and illustrates their use with examples of breeding programmes in cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. A series of questions with detailed answers is included in the book, to help reinforce the ideas and provide some practical experience in the prediction of genetic merit. The text is aimed at final year undergraduate and first year postgraduate students of quantitative genetics and animal breeding.

This title offers an insightful and intelligent exploration of modern beekeeping practices, and how they can be improved for a more sustainable and bee-friendly approach. In recent years, beekeepers around the world have suffered heavy and often dramatic loss of their colonies. Is it possible that the way in which bees are being kept could be part of the problem? And could hive design, artificial queen breeding, medication, and other elements of modern beekeeping be reducing the vitality of bees? "The Bee-Friendly Beekeeper" examines the issues surrounding modern beekeeping practices in order to identify an approach to keeping bees that is not only better for the bees themselves, but also for the future of beekeeping.

The Inductive Brain in Development and Evolution provides readers with a substantial biological education on animal nervous systems and their role in the development, adaptation, homeostasis, and evolution of species. The book begins by delving into the embryonic development of the brain and then discusses epigenetic information and neural activity post-birth. It then analyzes the inductive brain's neural and brain control of such factors like myogenesis, bone development, sensory organs, metamorphosis in vertebrates and invertebrates, and wing development in insects. The book closes with an examination of phenotypic evolution in neural control, mechanisms, and drivers of animal brains. The Inductive Brain in Development and Evolution will offer evolutionary biologists, specifically those researching development, adaptation, and evolution of animals, a comprehensive text that covers a variety of valuable topics.

As textbooks go, this is one of the few that I may actually choose to read in a spare moment, not just when madly researching what could possibly be the problem when I get called to a goat farm. It contains interesting information on the background of goat farming, goat behaviour, nutrition and husbandry in the introductory section... This hardback, logically presented book will live on a handy shelf to be used on a regular basis. - Pam Brown, mixed practice vet at Alnorthumbria Vets, Wooler, in Veterinary Record, 27 April 2019 Key features: Covers both goat medicine and surgery Covers basic anatomy, commons breeds and husbandry Includes new and emerging diseases Goats are one of the most widely kept domestic animals globally, mainly as a result of the relative ease with which they can be kept and the obvious benefits provided to those who keep them. Goat Medicine and Surgery describes the key diseases that can have an impact on goat health and welfare worldwide, providing information on diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, management and control. Covers basic anatomy, common breeds and husbandry. Divided into chapters covering each body system Offers the common differential diagnoses, followed by the specific diagnosis and recommended treatments Covers a wide range of disorders, including new and emerging diseases Modern goat keeping gives us a full spectrum of activity from nomadic tribes moving with their animals, to the range-keeping in Australia, to units fattening goat kids for meat and to intensive goat dairy production systems. Alongside these production systems are those in which goats are kept in small numbers as a hobby, as pets and at public attractions. This book deals with the diseases and challenges impacting all kinds of goats and their owners. It will be invaluable to veterinarians in practice and training, animal scientists and agricultural advisors, as well as scientists interested in animal welfare.

Atlas of the Pig Gut: Research and Techniques from Birth to Adulthood examines the development of the gastrointestinal tract in swine. It focuses on changes occurring during the developmental phase, with an emphasis on the gut that is reflected in alterations of the intestinal mucosa architecture. Led by leading experts in pig digestion research, the book contains descriptions and microphotographs of the most updated research. The changes occurring in the intestine are presented in a comprehensive order, from small magnifications of tissue structures to high magnifications of fragments of epithelium-building cell structures. Additionally, the book highlights the replacement mechanism of epithelial cells during the development of the small intestinal mucosa. This book is the ideal resource for animal science researchers and practitioners. In addition, swine veterinarians and academics will also find it useful due to its helpful, detailed graphics and organized structure.

Since the popular first edition was published more than a decade ago, the number of swine used in toxicity studies has increased as an alternative to commonly used non-rodent species, such as dogs and primates. A volume in the Laboratory Animal Pocket Reference Series, The Laboratory Swine, Second Edition maintains the high standard set by the previous edition and is poised to continue its legacy as the premier laboratory reference on the care and use of swine in the laboratory.

Emphasizes Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Swine

Addressing the biology, husbandry, management, veterinary care and research applications of both large and miniature swine, this color reference is a complete source of information on the species. It is thoroughly updated and includes a major revision to the anesthetics section. It also places a heightened focus on animal welfare and addresses important considerations related to genetically modified swine. The book is divided into six parts:

• Important Biological Features examines everything from different breeds and behavior, to anatomical and physiological features, as well as digestive, cardiovascular, and pulmonary systems
• Husbandry addresses housing, nutrition, sanitation, transportation, and more
• Management and Quality Assurance looks at the impact of infections on animal research using swine, zoonotic diseases, legal regulations, genetic monitoring, and more
• Veterinary Care covers a variety of topics, such as clinical examination, diseases, pain recognition, and post-operative management
• Experimental Techniques addresses restraint, sampling techniques, basic surgical procedures, and other issues
• Resources provides extensive references for further study, including handbooks, journals, and websites

The Laboratory Swine, Second Edition is ideal for animal caretakers, technicians, investigators, and laboratory animal veterinarians as a single-source reference that contributes to the humane care and use of swine in research.

Coastal Habitat Conservation: New Perspectives and Sustainable Development of Biodiversity in the Anthropocene offers the latest research and approaches to biodiversity conservation in coastal areas. The book synthesizes the background of foundational conservation views and provides new perspectives and recent strategies within a sustainable development context for coastal species and organic life. Written by a team of international authors with expertise in wide-ranging issues of biodiversity conservation, this book analyzes the challenges of conserving marine habitats and species that humanity faces in the Anthropocene era. Sections explore emerging and unforeseen impacts within a changing world, specifically, the marine-based conservation in the context of global change, coastal urbanization and mitigation of its environmental impacts, marine bioinvasions, conservation strategies for of out-of-sight communities like caves, habitat restoration, and the citizen science and its challenging role in monitoring conservation.

Bees make honey; we all know that. But what happens between the bee buzzing around our garden, and the sticky knife in the jar, is a mystery to most of us. How many bee-hours does it take to make just one jar of honey? What do the honeybees' waggling dances really mean? Why do bees swarm? What is a 'house bee'? From exploring their life cycle and development, to revealing their societies and behaviour, expert biodynamic beekeeper Michael Weiler answers these questions and many more. Combining poetic observations with scientific detail, The Secrets of Bees uncovers the incredible world of these remarkable insects.