For more than two decades, our guest today has kept a flock of chickens in her backyard. In her latest book, What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World’s Most Familiar Bird, National Book Award finalist Sy Montgomery takes us inside the flock and reveals all the things that make chickens such remarkable creatures: only hours after leaving the egg, they can walk, run and peck; they can recognize more than 100 other chickens; they remember the past and anticipate the future; and they communicate specific information with at least 24 different calls.
Sy Montgomery is a naturalist and author of more than thirty acclaimed books of nonfiction for adults and children, including The Soul of an Octopus and Of Time and Turtles, which was a New York Times bestseller. She is the recipient of lifetime achievement awards from the Humane Society and the New England Booksellers Association. She joins us today from her home in New Hampshire.
