What the Chicken Knows

Description

What the Chicken Knows
by Sy Montgomery

ISBN: 9781668047361
Hardcover, new
Publication Date 11/5/2024

Brief Description:
A charming and eye-opening exploration of the special relationship between
humans and chickens from Sy Montgomery, “one of our finest chroniclers of
the natural world” (The New York Times). For more than two decades, Sy
Montgomery—whose The Soul of an Octopus was a National Book Award
finalist—has kept a flock of chickens in her backyard. Each chicken has an
individual personality (outgoing or shy, loud or quiet, reckless or
cautious) and connects with Sy in her own way. In this short, delightful
book, Sy takes us inside the flock and reveals all the things that make
chickens such remarkable creatures: only hours after leaving the egg, they
are able to walk, run, and peck; relationships are important to them and
the average chicken can recognize more than one hundred other chickens;
they remember the past and anticipate the future; and they communicate
specific information through at least twenty-four distinct calls. Visitors
to her home are astonished by all this, but for Sy what’s more astonishing
is how little most people know about chickens, especially considering there
are about twenty percent more chickens on earth than people. With a winning
combination of personal narrative and science, What the Chicken Knows is
exactly the kind of book that has made Sy Montgomery such a beloved and
popular author.