“What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World’s Most Familiar Bird” by Sy Montgomery

c.2024, Atria Books, $22.99, 71 pages

Every day, you and your closest lady-friends have a good old-fashioned hen party.

It’s never too formal. You’re happy just winging it as you gather and gossip, squawking about this subject and pecking at that one. Life ruffles your feathers a whole lot less after you’ve cackled at each other’s jokes and crowed at your triumphs. As in “What the Chicken Knows” by Sy Montgomery, time with your ladies is pretty clucking great.

It’s not often that it happens, but when Montgomery needed a rooster expert, she was happy to find one almost right next door.

The problem was that Montgomery’s pet rooster had gotten aggressive. Ashley, the expert, advised Montgomery to do the unthinkable: pick up the creature with scimitar-like claws and cuddle him.

Montgomery, an animal lover from way back, had wanted chickens before the pandemic, but she wasn’t sure how to go about it until she met a woman who promised that the birds would be a “most incredible gift...”. And so, Montgomery spent a dreamy few days with a chick catalog, finally ordering flufflings through the mail, then she waited until a peeping box came to her local post office. She kept the fluffy babies in her office until it was time to transfer them to a coop; she didn’t name them, but she let the neighbor’s daughters do it.

She became immersed in “the Chicken Universe.”

At least once a day, Montgomery spent time playing with her “Ladies,” bringing them treats, teaching them to tricks, and kissing their little red combs. Her husband caught her cooing loving sentiments to them; she knew their individual personalities, their voices, and their pecking order.

But alas, as the human population in their area changed the landscape, a surge or predators decimated Montgomery’s flock, until there was just one animal left. Montgomery found the hen a home and closed her coop for good. She still has access to chickens and “… when I am just visiting,” she says, “they feel like family to me…”

No doubt, you know somebody who has chickens in their back yard or is seriously thinking about where a coop will fit. Maybe that “somebody” is you, which is why “What the Chicken Knows” is such a delight.

Montgomery titled her book aptly: what the chicken knows is more than most humans give them credit for, and she weaves necessary and relevant education in with stories that’ll speak to chicken-hearted readers everywhere. There’s also a sensibility to this book: Montgomery is a vegetarian but she doesn’t preach; furthermore, she’s calmly honest with the less desirable aspects of chicken-keeping, the facts of chicken-eating, and a surprisingly Zen-like forgiveness for predators. That leaves readers feeling as though they’ve stepped into Montgomery’s “Chicken Universe,” too.

The only complaint you may have about this book is that, at less than 100 pages and light as a feather, it’s too slim and needs more stories! If you’re a chicken lover, especially, “What the Chicken Knows” is egg-zactly the book you need.