Robert Höck: Happy Huhn

Happy Chicken

The pleasure of keeping happy chickens

For fans of the YouTube series and all other chicken lovers who want to learn from the likeable poultry professional in an entertaining way how their own chickens become and stay "happy". The first and largest part of the book deals with a wide variety of topics related to chicken farming. Usually rather "dry" topics, such as "feeding", "chicken house" and "animal health", Robert Höck approaches them with refreshing and contemporary approaches and convinces especially here with his "Happy Chicken Philosophy". This philosophy is essentially characterised by the fact that the well-being of the chickens is always clearly in the foreground. The easiest and most comfortable way for the owner, often does not lead to the best solutions for the animals and this is exactly where the author starts. For example, if you take chicken feeding as an example, you could feed your chickens alone with ready-mixed grain from the feed bag. However, chickens are not pure grain eaters and this widespread practice is therefore absolutely not animal-friendly.  Robert Höck does justice to the "omnivorous nature" of the domestic chicken by describing in this book how varied chickens feed under natural conditions and what consequences one should draw from this as a conscientious chicken keeper for feeding one's own flock of chickens.

Even unusual topics are found in this book and often become showpieces of the Happy Chicken philosophy. Did you know, for example, why global poultry breeding is dominated by so-called "hybrid chickens" today and why hobbyists should avoid hybrid chickens? Or have you ever heard that chicks after hatching do not instinctively know what to do, but actually need an adult role model from whom they can learn by imitating?

Furthermore, the "Happy Chicken" book contains a lot of new information even for connoisseurs of the YouTube series, and many a topic that has already been published in the form of a video is once again examined in the book from a completely different perspective.

Last but not least a highlight are breed portraits, which can be found in the back third of the book. Höck tells here the extraordinary stories of some exquisite chicken breeds, which are sometimes quite well known, but sometimes enjoy absolute rarity value and therefore hardly ever appear in other chicken books. The value of the accompanying YouTube videos is particularly evident in the breed presentations, because if you have just read the portrait on the Swedish flower chickens, for example, it rounds off the picture perfectly when you can also admire the animals "in action" on the screen.

From the content:

·          The Happy Chicken philosophy and what advantages it brings for the chickens

·          Tips for keeping chickens from grandma's times

·          Animal-friendly chick rearing with natural brood

·          Contemporary chicken feeding in the 21st century

·          Detailed breed portraits of selected chicken breeds

The author: Robert Höck, born in 1988, grew up on a small, traditional farm in the Tyrolean lowlands in Schwoich together with many animals. Even as a small boy he loved animals and had one eye on endangered breeds. Chickens, cattle and horses were his first priority. After attending agricultural school and training as a landscape gardener, he founded his first YouTube® channel back in 2008, which still exists today. The YouTube series "Happy Chicken", which now comprises 170 episodes, has brought him more than 300,000 subscribers. According to the rankings of "Socialblade", Robert currently ranks 21st among Austria's most influential YouTubers. https://socialblade.com/youtube/top/country/at

Author: Robert Höck

Edition: 2018

128 pages, 17 x 24 cm, paperback, colour illustrations throughout

Language: German