Review: How to Speak Chicken: Why Your Chickens Do What They Do & Say What They Say

How to Speak Chicken: Why Your Chickens Do What They Do & Say What They Say by Melissa Caughey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

How to Speak Chicken is another excellent entry for a chicken-keeper's library. It publishes in November 2017 and it's one to pre-order. Whereas The Chicken Chick Kathy Shea Mormino's recently published book about chicken-keeping provides us with a lot of the important details about chicken keeping, Melissa Caughey's equally excellent book provides us with a wealth of information and insights into chicken behavior. Caughey's book is also a good book for families. (More on that below.)

While addressing some of the same aspects that Mormino describes in terms of chicken, health, comfort, and safety, Caughey provides examples of what your chickens may be telling you with their behavior and overall affect. That to me, as a novice chicken owner, is invaluable. We can have all the facts at our fingertips but if we don't understand what is going on with a chicken (what they are "telling us") we will have a much harder time fixing problems for our cherished birds.

This book, with its many beautiful photos, is one that I would also recommend as an excellent starter for families with children who are interested in helping with chicken-keeping. Teaching a child to look at animal's behavior as a key to their health and wellbeing is a great gift. Chicken social dynamics, in particular, are well described in this book and children can spend time observing and thinking about how their chickens relate to one another. Encouraging your children to really look at animals, and analyze their behavior, is going to be an enrichment in their lives that will eventually benefit every animal (even the human ones) they encounter. Caughey's book offers just that opportunity.

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