Ahoy there me mateys!  I loved this author's book about octopuses so I was excited to see a new one about chickens.  The best thing about this book is the author's writing style.  She writes about her flock, called the Ladies, and what they taught her about the Chicken Universe.  They were pets and beloved members of the family.  Reading about them was so much fun.

Then, of course, there are the random chicken facts.  Chickens can make up to 24 different sounds and have unique personal voices.  Chickens can be smart (and aye, some not so much).  The pecking order is a real thing.  Also separate flocks of chickens won't necessarily like each other.  There are funny stories about her sweet bunch and another on her property called the Rangers owned by a tenant called the "Chicken Whisperer."  I loved hearing about the differences between the two flocks and their keepers.

The book also briefly talks about other chicken lovers.  There was a woman who rescued nasty roosters and fielded phone calls for advice.  Having had me own adventures with a nasty farm rooster named Panzer, I was super impressed.  And I also thought the neighbors next store who loved the Ladies were super sweet.  I particularly enjoyed that the carpenter would build cool things for the flock.

While I did really enjoy this, there are two flaws.  The first is that the book is only 96 pages.  I had no idea it was that short and was surprised when it was over.  I wanted more!  And the second is the price.  It seems insane to pay $22.99 for a hardcover and $11.99 for an e-book that is the length of a novella.  Just be forewarned.

That said, I do love the author's perspectives on life and animals and am extremely glad to have read this one.  Arrr!

This charming little book explores the surprising intelligence and individual personalities of backyard chickens, revealing their complex social lives, communication skills, understanding of past and future, and unique relationships with humans. The book is warm, delightful, and a pleasure to read.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you @simon.audio for the ALC and @atriabooks for the digital ARC through NetGalley.

I have loved Sy Montgomery’s work since I read The Soul of an Octopus. If you haven’t read it, please do! It is the pinnacle of nature writing in my opinion.

If you’ve followed my stories for any length of time, you know I have chickens. Besides providing me with the best eggs ever, they are incredibly entertaining. I spend a lot of time just hanging out with my girls. So, when I saw this as an option on @librofm from @simon.audio I snatched it up right away. It is a short book but fascinating. I learned a few techniques to use with my chickens and even has me contemplating getting a rooster some day down the road.

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read if you like:
Chickens
Nonfiction about animals
Entertaining stories about the authors chickens

.. and, it’s actually quite a lot.

What the chicken knows, that is…

In wonderful blend of scientific research and personal experience, the author employs a conversational tone with the reader describing her flock and the human interaction with them. You hear of the different breeds, their distinct characteristics and yes, even their personalities. You hear the experiences of other humans with their own flock. You learn of how some hens can recognize facial features as well as have unique greetings with some of their favored humans.

I read The Good Good Pig years ago by this same author and was pleased to revisit some of the people and animals in that book in this one.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, Atria Books, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was so pleased to be approved for this from NetGalley and Atria Books! I first learned of Sy when my mother bought me her book about her pig, (my favorite animal) Christopher Hogwood. We were both especially pleased to learn that Sy lived in our state! She also has recently become a penpal with my daughter - she is a true gem of a human!! I have always been an animal lover and Sy writes about them with such love and respect. Even animals you may not think you like she can write about in a way that makes you just love them! "What The Chicken Knows" is actually part of a larger book of hers called "Birdology", which I have not yet read, so was thrilled to be able to read this before it is released on November 5th. I have always been interested in chickens, but I will admit I have thought of them as "dirty" birds and rather stupid - I feel this opinion is rather pervasive in our culture. This book definitely challenges that idea and I loved reading about The Ladies and The Girls and all of their calls and habits. It really made me want to try keeping chickens of my own - if only we didn't live in the woods with many predators. The only small gripe I have about this little book is that it was too short and I wanted more! Thank you Sy!

Three or so years ago Sy Montgomery came to speak to my little book group over zoom. This was when I worked for the library. To me she is a kindred spirit. I was so excited I didn't even prepare good questions.
Anyway, at the end she had to rush off to go close her chicken coop. I am now a "crazy chicken lady." So when I saw this book was coming out I was dying to read it. Right in the introduction she writes about the best way to deal with an aggressive rooster, which is something I am dealing with as my beloved Magenta feels the need to attack me daily. I so pick him up and cuddle him but I am going to do it more now.
I love the way Montgomery calls the hens "ladies."
I spend my days watching my ladies on camera, while at work. They are the light of my life (after my children of course.) Today I am watching little chicks hatch in an incubator.
Anyway, I love learning all the chicken facts and reading about Montgomery's experiences with chickens. Thank you!

Short and sweet, but packed full of Sy Montgomery's insights and observations on animals. The author easily shows what makes chickens special with her unique perspective. Like many of her books, this book focuses more on specific chickens she has known in her life than from scientific expeditions or observational studies. Instead this is a up-close and very personal sharing of life in the Chicken Universe and how that changes your perspective of these animals and what they are capable of. As someone who has read all of her previous works, most of the content wasn't new to me, but was still enjoyable pulled together with this focus, I just wish there had been more.
As always I close a Sy Montgomery book having learned so much, but also with a new capacity for empathy and care for a new part of the animal world.

Another wonderful volume from one of my favorite writers. This time, the author turns her attention to the humble chicken and, as usual, manages to convey how special they are. Montgomery is not a scientist, but a journalist, so she combines the basic biological and historical details with fun anecdotal information, my favorite kind. In a very brief book, she recounts stories of chickens and roosters she’s known and loved. Her voice is, as always, approachable and relatable and makes you laugh and tear up while always getting to know each of her Ladies like the unique, wonderful feathered people they are. She doesn’t shy away from the bad parts, those behaviors that are unexplainable to humans and which make their good features even more special. The way the descendants of the mighty dinosaurs can relate and communicate with us is fascinating. For animal lovers and fowl enthusiasts, this book will enchant, entertain and inform.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Atria Books.

If you've ever had a flock of chickens, you know how entertaining and fun to be around they are. Or maybe you've never been around chickens and are curious. Sy Montgomery wrote this little book in a conversational tone and ranges from individual chicken personalities to their hard-wired instincts. From docile pet roosters to roosters whose mission is to protect the flock at all costs. I think like all of her books about specific species, this book will be enjoyed by many curious readers. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for my honest opinion.

My thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this book by a noted nature writer discussing her time among the chickens, what they have taught her, and the love that so many have for these creatures, and how little most people know about them.

I grew up in a small town in Connecticut, but not a small town that had chickens. I think I remember someone having pigeons, but that was the only birds I remember hearing. Hearing being the operative word. I remember a few years ago being awoken by a rooster at around 5 am. It wasn't the sound from cartoons, nor movies, but a noise that was able to shake me out of my bed. My neighbor apologized, and that is when I found out they were trying to raise hens, and somehow a rooster had slipped in with his purchase. I knew little about poultry, but became more interested when they started sharing their bounty of eggs. A bounty that caused me a little distress as these eggs were so fresh, with yolks so yellow, that I had to bake something. A lot of somethings. And a barter system was soon going on. Visiting I was amazed again at how unlike television these hens, and the rooster would act. I know that Chicken Run is not a documentary, but watching these birds I had a lot of questions and thoughts. And thankfully Sy Montgomery has written a book that answers them. What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird is a look at hens and roosters who are far more intelligent and interesting than I ever thought, written by one of my favorite nature writers.

Sy Montgomery has had hens and roosters for almost twenty years since moving into her farmhouse in New Hampshire. The book is a bit memoir, and nature book, with a lot about the animals that Montgomery is familiar with, along with discussions from other sources. Montgomery discusses how she started with hens and some of her more favorite stories. There is a lengthy look at roosters and how they are far more courtly to their flock than I had thought possible, and yet like most men can fly into jealous rages at the drop of an egg. Montgomery talks to others about chickens, learning how chickens communicate, and even how they recognize other chickens, and possibly people. And of course stories about interactions, the chickens wanting to be around Montgomery's neighbors, wanting to be picked up and even more wanting to be talked to.

I always come away from a book by Sy Montgomery with a better appreciation of the natural world, and a hope that maybe everything will be ok. Montgomery is a very good writer, bringing people into her world, sharing information, telling stories, and reminding us the world is bigger than we think, and that our actions have consequences. And that maybe everyone should just spend a day with animals and calm down. Montgomery has something that is rare today. Empathy. Montgomery cares about everything she writes about, people, place and readers. There is such beauty in watching a hen just roost. In watching them peck, and walk across to view the neighbors, or running to say hello. Yes, nature is cruel, don't show a wound to hens, but that is yin to the yang. The natural world has much to offer us, please don't be afraid to visit it.

I always come away from Montgomery's books smarter, and feeling better. I love that I can share stories about animals with my nephew who is a naturalist even though he is a city boy. I have amazed him about turtles, octopodes, and hummingbirds. I can't wait to visit my neighbor's flock and impress him with my chicken knowledge. Another reason to thank Sy Montgomery for another great book.

A run on mishmash stream of consciousness. I was expecting to gain some kind of deep insight, but I couldn't get slog through it to get there if it exists within the book. Not for me.

Never knew that chickens were so smart! A wonder informational book filled with delightful stories about the chickens the author came to know and love. Montgomery had another hit on her hands to put next to The Soul of an Octopus

One can’t go wrong with Sy Montgomery and even having read the book that this content was pulled from, I found it worth my time to hang out with her chickens again.

*What the Chicken Knows* offers intriguing insights from the author, a former chicken owner, as well as from several of her neighbors who have either owned or regularly interacted with chickens. Through their experiences, we learn that chickens are intelligent, social creatures, capable of learning and displaying distinct cultures within their their respective flocks. The book also includes some findings from scientific studies on chicken behavior.

However, its brevity limits the depth and breadth of information one might expect from someone with over two decades of experience raising chickens.

Recommended for fans of the author's previous work, though it falls short of being one of her best.

This was an enjoyable read. I love chickens but this explains them in a way that hopefully others will appreciate them too. I also found it at times humorous.

While this book contained a lot of previously published information , not sure it qualifies as a new book but it was still a good read.

4 stars for the original content, only 2 for the repackaging, so split the difference. This is the chicken-related portions of Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur; I didn't do a side-by-side comparison, but I don't think there were even any updates or added sections, it's just a reprint. I'm not sure whose idea it is to re-release this author's work in different carvings under different names, but I'm not a fan of it. Please stop.

If reader's haven't already read Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur, then this is fine. The author writes with feeling and the reader connects to the various chickens and their personalities. But it's best read with the original work in its entirety.

eARC from NetGalley.

This is a very short book with not much chicken science in it despite the title. Most of it is about the author's own flock and her experiences raising them. While interesting, as I do love chickens and like hearing about their individual personalities, it is not what I signed up for. There is not much to be learned in this book, but it kept me occupied for an hour, and it's about chickens.

I adored this tiny, charming book! Montgomery brings such character to her slim story of raising and loving her chickens and now I want to hug all the chickens! I will recommend this book at every opportunity. Huge thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the early access in exchange for my honest opinion.

In this slim, charming volume, noted animal lover Sy Montgomery blends personal experience with science writing to expand the reader's appreciation of the humble chicken. She tells the story of how she came to have and raise her own flock -- the Ladies -- and why she eventually had to relinquish it.

Readers who have enjoyed any of Montgomery's other works or Jennifer Ackerman's books will love this quick read.

This review will be published to Goodreads on August 16, 2024 and scheduled for release to Instagram for October 29, 2024.