With What the Chicken Knows, bestselling nonfiction writer Sy Montgomery (The Hummingbirds' Gift; The Soul of an Octopus) gives readers a warm, intimate view of chickens through her own experience of falling in love with, raising, and learning about her flock.
When Montgomery and her husband, Howard, bought a 150-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse, their neighbor Gretchen Morin gave them their first dozen chicks "as a barn-warming present." Through research inspired by her close-up observations, Montgomery explains the true meaning of "pecking order" and the ramifications of introducing roosters into her flock of hens. When Montgomery rents to a tenant she fondly calls "the Chicken Whisperer," who brings her own flock (dubbed "the Rangers") with her, she experiences the challenges of housing a second flock. Though the additional flock had been part of the arrangement, the problems caused by two flocks sharing the same land were a surprise.
Quirky, amusing details--the chickens' affection for Christopher Hogwood, Montgomery's pig, who lived in a pen next to the coop for more than a decade, as well as next-door neighbors Bobbie and Jarvis Coffin, whom the birds often hopped across the fence to visit--share space with scientific revelations, such as how to calm a rooster, and the facts that chicks can peck and walk mere hours after leaving their egg and chickens can run up to nine miles per hour. Adapted and revised from a chapter of her 2010 book, Birdology, Montgomery's account of her limitless devotion for her feathered friends is contagious, and its nifty 5x7 trim size makes it an ideal gift. --Jennifer M. Brown, reviewer