The Complete Book of Raising Livestock and Poultry

By: Katie Thear (Editor), Alistair Fraser (Editor)

Backyard farmers interested in having a readily available source of eggs and meat are provided with nontechnical information on housing, feeding, raising and butchering chickens.

How to dispach and prepare poultry for the table is covered which is useful as this is a taboo subject for most writers

 Choosing and Keeping Chickens

By: Chris Graham

Chris Graham has written a fantastic book here. It covers all you need to know to keep chickens, as do others, but where this really stands out is the section on what birds to get.

He describes about 50 different breeds, each with a colour picture and vital information for the prospective keeper such as their suitability for keeping at home, number and type of eggs laid, personality etc.  He also covers ex-battery hens, which I found cheering.

This book is excellent value for money - one to buy and keep handy on the shelf for reference.

 Choosing and Keeping Ducks and Geese

By: Liz Wright

I doubt there is much about keeping ducks and geese that Liz Wright doesn't know and her wonderful book covers every question the novice is likely to ask. She starts logically with what you actually need to keep ducks and moves through to care, problems and diseases, housing and so forth.

I wholehearted recommend this book for anyone thinking of keeping ducks or geese. It's brilliant

 Poultry House Construction (Gold Cockerel S.)

By: Michael Roberts,

This is a do-it-yourself guide to building poultry houses and allied equipment. It discusses the needs of the various types of fowl, and gives detailed plans and material lists for building coops, nest boxes, runs, arks, folds, a show box and a "poultry palace".

It's not quite as clear cut or easy as yo may want but a good starting point for creating your own chicken coop.