Customer Reviews

Extraordinary Chickens 2012 Wall Calendar

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Having chickens ourselves, and always loving the more exotic/fancy breeds, I thought this would be a good encyclopedia of sorts of all those rarer and unusual breeds...something to pour over while trying to pick out some new breeds to order in the spring. While the book DOES have a lot of those neat breeds in it (Brabanters, Polish, Owlbeards, etc) I was disappointed - not at the photos (they are well done;and the intentions of the photographer are clearly stated in the introductory pages) but because it was not what I had expected - the photos aren't of a pair of the same breed per page or even a full-body shot of a hen or rooster, but rather a photograph of something that the photographer found interesting about that breed. For example, one page is just a super close-up shot that shows the comb of a rooster, or a head-on shot of a rooster - whereas I was keener to see what a rooster & hen of that breed would look like - full body and all. There were some interesting pictures - like comparisons shot between the standard size and bantam of the same breed. But to look at pictures dedicated to Chicken's Feet or Spurs (yes, actual chapters) - not what I had paid for. Had I seen this book in the store and been able to look through it first, I would not have chosen to purchase it. It's also worth noting that this book is bantam size as well! It's very small and compact - no bigger than your hands. If looking for an artistic book of chicken photography - this is the book for you. If wanting a book that will give you more details/info about breeds with full photographs - it is not.

I absolutely love this Extraordinary Chickens Calendar!!! The photos are very beautiful and clear. I raise show and pet poultry myself and really appreciate the effort taken in photographing these quick/hard to photograph birds! It's also nice to see the specific breeds listed for each photo. There is plenty of room on each calendar day to write memos etc.

The photographs really are amazing, especially the close-ups of chicken faces! Lovely! I treasure this calendar now and will keep it forever to refer back to, to enjoy these lovely birds! :) Cheers!

This calendar made my day every day of the Year! Every month brought another smile to my face to see the exotic chicken staring back at me from the top of the calendar page! This calendar was a real treat! I like having a calendar this size with room on the months days to make notes for appointment et al, and this one had all that. But it was the chicken at the top, that kept bringing a smile to my face and made me feel better about the day. A wonderful idea wonderfully done!

Incredible photography. It's a very small book, but worth having. I am planing to get other of his books.

What's not to like? This book contains many lovely photographs of chickens. Chickens can be beautiful, too, you know. They are not just senseless creatures pecking in the dirt until their lives are one day summarily ended on the chopping block. They like to dress it up and step out on occasion, just like everybody else.

Now, this tome should not be read as some type of argument for a chicken eugenics, whereby the beautiful and unique are spared, while the homely, the overly-wattled, and the splay-footed are consigned to the workhouse, laying eggs for your McMuffin in silence and disgrace. Far from it. This book is a celebration of all chickens, for all chickens.

Vive la chicken.

This book really gives you a feel of what Chickens are really about and made of! This writter has extrodanary pictures to explain the life of a chicken! We recomend this book to all who love chickens and everything about chickens!

Polish chickens (as displayed on the cover and interior of this book) are a strikingly unusual breed. According to the author, they may actually be Italian chickens, originating near the River Po. They are the avian equivalent of Old English Sheepdogs. Ice can form in their topknots in cold weather, and their crest feathers restrict vision, which causes them to be easily frightened. However, they see very well downward, which after all is the food direction for chickens.

I'm not precisely a poultry romantic, having once helped a friend clean out a chicken coop. But Stephen Green-Armytage's book, and yearly visits to the Poultry exhibit at the Michigan State Fair have convinced me that I am going to raise chickens some day. Just the thought of a flock of Owlbeards, Polish Frizzles, or Buff Orpingtons bobbing through my garden and gobbling up the cutworms and grasshoppers is enough to make me smile. I can always hire someone else to clean out the coop.

"Extraordinary Chickens" is not a how-to poultry manual. It is a book of beautiful photographs that grew out of an assignment the author undertook for "LIFE Magazine." There is also some explanatory text on a small but striking selection of the more than five hundred poultry breeds that have been recorded by poultry photographers such as Josef Wolters and Rudiger Wandelt. It certainly stands testament to the breeders'desire to develop chickens with an amazing variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. There are photographs of chickens with combs like red sea coral (Hamburgs) and Moose antlers (Sicilian Buttercups); chickens with tails that are twenty feet long (the Phoenix or Onagadori); and chickens that look like pheasants (Sumatras) or Bulldogs (Cornish game birds---at least from the front).

The author suggests attending a poultry show, if you find yourself intrigued by the photographs in this book---"In 1995, a show in Nuremberg, Germany, boasted a total of more than seventy thousand birds, a record that will probably be beaten before this book appears." California seems to be the hotbed of ornamental poultry in this country, although I can testify to the fact that Michigan has at least one yearly show.

If you think you might actually want to raise your own poultry, first read Chapter Nine of the totally fascinating "Encyclopedia of Country Living" by Carla Emery. It's got everything from "Good Recipes for Old Hens" to a section on roosters divided into "Crowing," "Fighting," and "Making Capons."

I brought this book for my Boyfriend a vet who loves chickens. He adores this book and carries it around with him to show people why he has such an unusual obsession. I am not a poultry fan, but the pictures are absolutely wonderful.

If you have any interest in beautiful birds of any species, I suspect you will like this book. The photography is of the highest quality and Mr. Green-Armytage has a wonderful way of presenting the birds as special characters, not just standard poses. He has done a wonderful job of selecting a wide variety of lovely chickens from both British and American poultry shows. There is just enough text to whet one's interest in the breeds. Unfortunately, the index only has page numbers for the photos. Descriptions of the birds need to be hunted up on your own. But you bought it for the photos of lovely, strange and cute/funny birds.

This book is 112 pages of fantastic photos portraying poultry, exotic and domestic,in the most grandios fashion. You'll never look at a chicken the same way again! (excepy,maybe,if your'e having mashed potatos and gravy) Incredulous crests! Striking split combs! Magnificent beards,muffs,whiskers! Exciting and unusual feather patterns and colors are included in this wonderful collection. You will also enjoy the infusion of interesting information about the assorted breeds.