Yet another delightful book from Sy Montgomery that is short and sweet, informative, has just a bit of silliness, and is absolutely beautiful. I love how she writes! Her stories are lovely and she has such a sweet charm to her voice. I learned many new things about chickens and raising backyard chickens from this book!

All the same, I appreciate its brevity. It makes a great addition to anyone's library: it would make an easy gift for a reader who may not read a lot of nonfiction, but also a fun gift for the avid nature reader.

I received a digital arc from netgalley and Atria Books to read and review honestly and voluntarily.

Sy is one of the best non fiction writers out there. The prose just rolls through you and wraps you in a warm blanket. The entry into her collection is the perfect amount of heart and humor

This was a good informative little snippet about chickens. I feel like she could’ve even given more but all in all it was an interesting little read.

I never thought of chickens as endearing but I was wrong. Sy Montgomery wrote a charming narrative about chickens that opened my eyes. The book had humour and the author’s journey. It was also highly informative. Montgomery is a great science writer and I would have been happy to read a longer book about the subject. Overall, this is a great read. Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the digital review copy.

3.5 rounded to 4 ⭐️

Sy's writing is delightful as ever, as she shares the lives and personalities of her flock, the Ladies. I wish it was more robust, similar to her books on octopuses (my faves), with experts and scientific studies. Do we not do a lot of chicken science (that isn't nutrition based)? 🤔

4 Stars ✨

Thanks to Netgalley for this advanced e-book copy of What the Chicken Knows, in exchange for an honest review.

Non-Fiction

I live on a homestead with lots of farm animals, the main one being chickens. I love my ladies and the Roos. They are fascinating creatures. I came across this arc, and could not wait to learn more interesting facts about them.

Sy Montgomery is an obvious animal lover. She loves her flocks and they are like pets to her. All her stories in this book about her chickens were relatable. She also shares lots of studies done on chickens and their findings. It’s so funny to ask yourself “What does a chicken know” especially when sometimes they act like they don’t know much. That’s not the case at all. These feathery creatures know way more than anyone gives them credit for. Often times chickens are looked at as stupid birds, when in all honesty they are very clever and wise little dinosaurs.

“There are hidden depths to chickens, definitely.”

I knew a lot of the facts presented in this book, but was also surprised there is so much more to learn. I gained a bit of new knowledge after reading this. Especially about how the roosters interact with the ladies and how precise each cluck and call they make has a unique meaning.

“For instance, playbacks of a roosters kisssing took-took-took call caused hens to scratch for food— evidence it means “Come, here’s some food”

Overall I think this book would be helpful for those just starting out with chickens, or those looking to expand their knowledge about them. They are so fun to observe.

Much like the Soul of the Octopus, the author has this time turned her focus to the chicken. As someone who has had chickens for over ten years, to her twenty, the only new things I learned that like elephants, apparently chickens name things as well. The other things, such as how the roosters, and in the absence of a rooster, the chicken at the top of the pecking order, make different sounds for danger and for food. Apparently there is a different call if the danger is in the air, or on the ground.

Hanging around chickens is all fun and games,too, until the predators come, and the author talks about the heartbreak of losing chickens that way. And chickens don’t last all that long, so one goes through many of them in a given period of time.

A quick fun read. She interviews several chicken lovers, as well as talking about her own chickens.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out the 5th of November 2024.

So, what does the chicken know? Apparently everything about us humans who know so little or next to nothing about them.

This charming book tells the experience of the author as the owner of a flock of hens she dubbed the Ladies, that includes a mixture of purebred hens and roosters she kept at her New England farmhouse. For eggs? Not quite. For food? Definitely not!

Sy Montgomery is an animal lover, the livestock she cares for are more like beloved pets than sources of food for herself and her family. She had a variety of animals, well cared for and well loved, but the most loved were the Ladies, an assortment of peculiar hens each with their own personality and habits that taught her and her family so much about what she calls the Chicken Universe. Things like that they have personalised voices (no chicken sounds the same as other chicken), different levels of intelligence (some hens are so smart and others dumb as rocks), distinctive character (some are bossy, others affectionate, others playful, so on), and that they have their own "language" (there's twenty-four different sounds they can make). She also made friends with other chicken lovers, such as a couple that kept a rooster sanctuary in the vicinity and a "Chicken Whisperer" that owned a similar flock of peculiar hens she moved in to Montgomery's farmhouse with.

There's plenty of informative and hilarious anecdotes in this book, about the flock's members in relation to other members and other animals, and about humans and chickens. The funnier parts in this book is when Montgomery is narrating the behavioural differences and the surprising rivalries between the two flocks co-existing at her farm, the Chicken Whisperer's flock, called the Rangers, and her own Ladies. The former were drama llamas (well, drama chickens) whilst the latter were loving and quiet. There's also a third flock, the Girls, that another family nearby owns, but we don't see much of them as we do of the Ladies and the Rangers.

I spent my childhood at a farmhouse myself, but even I have to say that most of the information about chicken this book delivers was completely new to me. Of course, I didn't think they were as dumb as city people think, I could see their peculiarities by myself back then. But the thing is, the chickens at my family's farmhouse were livestock and Montgomery's are pets; and that accounts for the differences in our attitudes. I was in charge of collecting the eggs some mornings, and saw countless chicken end up on my mother's delicious chicken stew pot, so I have no sentimentality towards chickens as the author, a vegetarian, does. They were well cared for and well fed, they never experienced the hardships of commercially-raised ones, but they were food. This book hasn't changed that in the least.

Although this book is for all ages, I believe it would be most appreciated by younger audiences, as it'd make for a great family read with children and young teens.

A beautiful and short read, What the Chicken Knows is perfect for any chicken lover! Sy Montgomery’s story of raising chickens for decades gives us entertaining stories from her own flock of hens (and occasional roosters) and also educational information related to our feathered friends.

I really enjoyed this book and could see myself gifting it to my friends with flocks. I was interested in Montgomery’s approach to roosters - hugging them - and how her hens all squat to greet her. There are other chicken-raising families mentioned in the book, and I enjoyed hearing the different ways to keep a flock (free range versus fenced, versus electric fence, etc.). Predators are also explored, but this is a topic most chicken owners are familiar with.

What the Chicken Knows was a welcome escape into peaceful chicken land! I would highly recommend this, especially for a quick palete cleanse in-between longer reads.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and the author Sy Montgomery for an ARC of this lovely book in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Sy Montgomery for allowing me to review this educational and entertaining book about my favorite animals. I read Sy Montgomery’s original book showcasing chickens called Birdology. This new book about chickens is an updated version of the chapter dedicated to chickens in that original book. Much of the educational aspects from the original book are the same or very similar to this new title, but additional stories of chicken keeping are included which I very much enjoyed reading. I would have enjoyed additional new photos, but I was happy to read more stories about their chicken keeping escapades. I am so glad this new updated version is being published to reach a new audience of chicken keepers and those who just love learning and reading about birds. Thank you for publishing this and thank you for allowing me to review this important book. I love everything Sy Montgomery writes and I can’t wait to read more from this author.