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.

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.

As a longtime fan of Sy Montgomery and someone with a growing interest in birds, I was thrilled to receive an ARC of What the Chicken Knows courtesy of @netgalley and @atriabooks.

Childhood memories of playing with the newly hatched fluffy chicks in my grandmother's shed after school came flooding back as I began reading. However, those feathered friends had faded into a distant memory, replaced by a more traditional, American view of adult chickens. Roosters, in particular, instilled a healthy dose of fear in me.

Montgomery, with her signature blend of heartwarming anecdotes and scientific insights, transforms our understanding of these common farmyard birds. She dismantles stereotypes, revealing the intelligence, complexity, and even bravery hidden beneath feathers.

This charming and informative book is packed with fascinating facts about chickens, leaving me with a newfound respect for these often-overlooked creatures.

I'll admit to being a little nervous that it would include too many details about factory farming, but those practices were left largely undiscovered. That would be a much different book. What the Chicken Knows accomplishes what it sets out to do -- show us how little we know about our most common feathered friends.

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.