best book/ resource on chicken keeping

[OiVaVoi]

I am considering getting a couple of chickens for my Mum and step Dad who moved to rural Somerset last year. Can anyone recommend some good resources, to help me research and also to buy for them if I decide to go ahead. I have just discovered the Chicken Keepers section here, so will have a good look here.

Just how low maintenance ARE chickens? I don't want them to be a burden to my parents but think they would really enjoy having them and they just need a little nudge!

Try the Omlet website.
We found that 90% of the time they were very low maintenance, but twice in the three years we had them, they got mites, and then became a high maintenance pet. Once we'd had them once though, we knew what we were up against and much easier to deal with. Also, If you go with one of the Eglu houses (you'll see what I mean if you look on the Omlet website) which are far more expensive than traditional wooden ones, I think they are meant to be heaps easier to clean and far less likely to harbour mites. ours were sadly eaten by a fox last summer, but we are looking to replace next spring, and will be investing in an Eglu.

Chicken Coops for the Soul is an enjoyable read.

I found the www.backyardchickens.com website very useful back in the day - though I've not been on in years, so things may have changed. It's a US based website, which I used because pet chicken keeping wasn't a thing in the UK at the time (early / mid 00's) - people gave you some very funny looks when you talked about pet chickens, finding chicken food involved driving to a feed merchant in the countryside and finding a chicken keeping section on a mainstream website like MN would have been unthinkable!

In terms of books, the Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow is a godsend.

In terms of maintenance - they're fine, so long as you are happy to tend to them twice a day, don't mind getting your hands dirty, have some basic DIY skills and are happy to learn some veterinary skills (I ended up knowing more than most vets...)

Yup, Omlet website.

I have the Haynes chicken manual which is pretty good.
They're low maintenance if you have a big garden without a fox problem because it's easier to keep them healthy if they free range in a lot of space.

I'm assuming they really DO want them - I'd be a bit iffy about buying live animals for somebody else.