Home to Roost: A Backyard Farmer Chases Chickens Through the Ages | 
 enlarge | Author: Bob Sheasley
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.46
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 148697
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0312373643
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.5
EAN: 9780312373641
ASIN: 0312373643
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
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Product Description
Each day, Bob Sheasley leaves Lilyfield Farm and heads into the city. And each day, he brings along a basket of eggs for his coworkers at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Depending on the breed of hen, these eggs may be white, green, rose, blue, or as brown as chocolate. And they are all deliciously fresh, a taste of the rural way of life that people have enjoyed for millennia, one in which chickens have played a supporting role for nearly as long. In Home to Roost, Sheasley tells of the intertwined relationship between humans and chickens. He delves into where chickens came from, what their DNA tells us about our kinship, how we’ve treated our feathered fellow travelers, and the roads we’re crossing together. This is a story of agriculture and human migration, of folk medicine and technology, of how we dreamed of the good life, threw it away, and want it back. Modern farming has changed the lives of both bird and man over the past century. But backyard farmers like Sheasley offer hope for a return to the pleasures of locally grown food, as diverse as the chickens he’s raised on Lilyfield Farm. With wit and personal insight, Home to Roost examines of how our lives can be changed for the better, with something as simple as a backyard coop.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 It's Real Life Love and a Man With Sense of Humor September 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Two Weeks Under
In first pages, the alluring narrator tells us he treks into Philadelphia every day from his bucolic farm, carrying a basket of fresh eggs to the bustling, city-worn newsroom of the Phildelphia Inquirer, where he works as an editor.
He had me at hello. The contrast between the natural life of a farm and the manmade newsroom illuminates our timely struggle to live a natural life in a techno world. Bob Sheasley has balance. He is a loving, talented story telling voice, but not saccharin sweet. He doesn't keep it cute. Farming isn't cute. Natural isn't all cute. That's probably why the faint hearted (like me) ran to cities to begin with.
He's a realist, but an optimistic one, who loves the land, his relationship to it, and with an unyielding respect for chickens. But he doesn't anthropomorphize them either. The relationship between man and chicken is filled with love, alienation, conflict, tragedy, irritation, celebration, survival instinct, and hunger. He brings that world to life, reminds us it's okay to feel everything at once, because that's life. If we're happy, we can also be sad. Nothing stands alone.
When I put down this book, I felt connected--and REALLY in the mood for sunny side up eggs. I highly recommend this book.
--Rivka Tadjer, Woodstock,N.Y.
A fantastic read for all things chicken! September 22, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
My mother bought me this book, what a delightful find! I'd never heard of it - of course it's brand new, even newer than I am to keeping chickens; my husband and I embarked on that adventure in June of this year. Bob Sheasley's informative, entertaining look at all things chicken is a fascinating read. Chicken fans will appreciate his explanation of the evolution of chicken raising, from ancient farmyards to the factory farms of today, and the seemingly return to the farmyard that's happening across the country. But there's much more to find in this book, so much I can't cover it all in this little review. If you've read and enjoyed Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and you keep chickens, you will really enjoy reading this wonderful book!
 Not warm and cozy September 18, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I love chickens and when I enjoy a book it is usually because I can feel that the writer loves it's subject. I did not get that feeling with this book. A lot of nasty historical information about the awful things the human race has done to chickens. The writer states that after a predatory attack on his peeps (which were kept outside in a cage, not in a secure building) he threw the dead bodies and parts into the weeds behind the garden. This is the exact opposite of what to do in that case. The predator probably came back that night and enjoyed it's leftovers. In the case of death by predator one should remove the remains and prevent the predator from having a meal otherwise it will remember that it ate well at your coop and soon be back. Such a shame. I had been looking forward to a fun read like Enslaved by Ducks or
Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance: Reflections on Raising Chickens but encountered this disturbing book. I'll take the other reviewers (from the book flap) at their word, that the author loves chickens, but can't recommend this book if you do too.
A Book Worthy of John McPhee July 27, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
More than anything else, "Home to Roost" reminds me of something that could have been written by the great John McPhee. In books like "Oranges" or "Giving Good Weight", McPhee immerses himself into the citrus-growing or farm-market industry, learns all that he can about it, then writes about the lifestyle in a way that the reader comes to understand the processes and procedures -- and appreciate the people involved. This is what Bob Sheasley has done for chicken farming in "Home to Roost."
The book is meticulously researched and offers as much footnoted, scholarly material as a textbook. But unlike most texts, it's written in a highly entertaining style with beautiful personal touches woven throughout. We read about the pros and cons of both caged and free-range egg production, then see which one chickens might choose for themselves if left to their own devices. We witness the devastation of predator attacks on a flock of free-range hens and to the hearts of the family who had given these creatures names... Such topics as animal research, genetic manipulation, animal rights, big agribusiness, organic farming are all examined from multiple viewpoints, always keeping in mind their effect -- good, bad, or somewhere in between -- on chickens and the people who live by them.
By turns funny, touching, and provocative, this is a memorable book that will leave you feeling you've learned something important - and that you've had a wonderful time doing it!
more than just a book about chickens July 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
More than just a book about chickens, this is a book about life. Life as it was, life as it is, and our longing for what we've lost along the way. Sheasley's book is tremendously informative and often times funny. Sometimes it is poignant to the point of tears. It is impossible not to feel moved by this wonderful book- not if you have a heart and a soul.
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