Hobby Farming For Dummies Paperback – August 11, 2008

Great book that goes over the basics of starting a farm. I found a lot of information useful, straightforward, and easy to understand. If you are thinking about starting a garden, hobby farm, or a full blown homestead, this is a fantastic book to begin with.

I bought this because I was interested in farming for fiber. The author helps give you an idea of what is involved.The book talks a little about food farming, but mostly about animals.I liked that the author talked about things like how much acerage might be needed, basic laws, and things like why a rain barrel is important.The author also discussed how the new housing development down the road is a problem and causes stress to the animals, and how new neighbors from the city complain about animal noise and smell (happening in my own rural town right now.)The author also discusses types and relative cost of barnes, shelters, feed, etc.If you are interested in fiber farming I recommend Shear Spirit for tales from experienced farmers which really opened my eyes to the hard labor, long hours, and cost of farming.All in all I learned that there really isn't much money to be made in farming unless you can do pretty much EVERYTHING on your own. If you want to keep chickens and grow veggies, this book can help you get started.

This book came fast, and as promised. I enjoyed the casualness of the writing style. It includes helpful tips and considerations when deciding if hobby farm homestead is for you; it is an investment that's not for everyone. This book was a nice quick(ish) read, and brings up excellent points for consideration.

If you're looking for in depth, detailed information on anything, a "Dummies" book isn't for you. On the other hand, if you're looking for "wavetop" information on a variety of related topics to help get you started, "Dummies" books are a great. That's precisely what "Hobby Farming for Dummies" delivers.The great things about this book are:1) It's readable. There's not a lot of jargon to get you tied up in wondering "what the heck is the author talking about?"2) It's broad. The author covers a lot of different subjects in just enough detail to give the reader an idea of how important or unimportant that topic is to them, and help the reader decide if they need to do more in-depth research on that topic.3) It's got a good collection of resources for further, more in-depth study. Throughout the book, the author directs the reader to various websites, books, and other resources that can provide more detail. The reader is able to pick and choose what they want to learn about as they develop their own farm.My only criticism is that, despite the title indicating as such and a few scant paragraphs throughout, the author doesn't spend a lot of time talking about the finances of a farm, whether "hobby" or otherwise. I think it could be immensely helpful to include a chapter in subsequent editions that helps the reader understand the finances, and to help them decide what scale they're looking to build and commit to.

This was a great book. I enjoyed it and it was a quick read with a lot of information. The book was repetitive with a lot of cross referencing. I recommend this book to anyone looking to move to the country.

Well written and informative; excellent overview but still leaves you to do the necessary 'research' should you choose to take the plunge.

Learning about the animals helped prevent me from making a mistake in getting them. More maintenance than I have time for at the moment, but then again, that was the purpose of learning about them by buying the book

Good book