I wish I was reviewing this book some time ago: having struggled with a thrice-repaired faulty incubator for 18 months, and lost a cockerel to a fox, this week we finally hatched 3 chicks successfully. We're so proud. We're also glad we had Katie Thear on hand, albeit in book form, to help us through the experience.

This is the first time we've taken any animal from conception through to birth ourselves. We've kept pigs and hens for some years now, but we've always bought them from other breeders, happy to pay for the benefit of their experience and investment of time. This was a big step for us: there's a certain weight of responsibility to get it right, to not put new-born creatures through any unnecessary distress or discomfort.

If you're considering rearing your own poultry I'd recommend getting a copy of the book. There's loads of information online, but Katie Thear's vast experience, condensed into a slim, easily-read volume, provides you with everything you need to know, with a consistent, reassuring voice. It's aimed squarely at the small-scale amateur poultry keeper.

It covers the whole process of rearing poultry, from the biology of the egg, through selecting breeding stock and fertility, and onto selecting or building an incubator and the prinpciples of incubation. There's a natural bias to chicken production, given their overwhelming popularity, but other species including ducks, geese and parrots are given brief summaries and are included in all the book's useful tables. There's also a very helpful "What went wrong?" section, providing vital feedback if your chicks didn't hatch successfully. I went through the unpleasant task of diagnosing fertilised eggs which didn't hatch, but it was an essential step to understanding what was happening during incubation.

Our new charges are happily exploring their brooder (built to the plan in the book) and thriving. At least they seem glad we read it.