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

This made an excellent gift for a chicken enthusiast!

This was a great book to pick up for new chicken keepers and seasoned chicken keepers alike. The author wrote about heartfelt experiences raising her own chickens as well as the not so glamorous side of chicken keeping. It gave a well rounded idea of what to expect and made you feel like anyone is capable of raising their own flock.

Whether you are just getting started with chickens or have more than you can count, this book will answer questions that you didn't even know to ask. The author, Melissa Caughey has a magical way of sharing her common sense approach to raising chickens, in a way that is easy for anyone to understand.This book covers the essentials but also helps people understand how chickens think and feel and why they do the weird things they do. The book is really well researched and it explains the reasons behind chicken's behaviors and needs. It covers everything from raising chicks, to roosters, to flock size to saying goodbye. However, what is so different about this book versus others AND what I love most about this book is it is written from Melissa's perspective as a real-life person that keeps chickens in her backyard. She is not a farmer with hundreds of chickens, she is a mom, living in a town, with a typical flock in a standard backyard.So many people who gets chickens for the first time, always says "OMG, I never knew they were so smart, had so much personality, or that I could love them so much" -- it is like this huge revelation! In "How to Speak Chicken" Melissa Caughey writes about what she sees and what she is experiencing with her flock and you feel like it is personal and real and you can feel how much she loves and understands her little flock. She gets it, and she raises her chickens the way I want to to raise mine - with lots of love and compassion. I feel it, in my heart, when she wrote about chicken feeling loss and the friendships between chickens, and I relate when she talks about chicken's ability to help people through tough times because that is what it is really like to have chickens. So if you are looking for a book that will tell you what it is really like to have chickens, this is the book for you.Just one more thing, I am kind of a chicken geek and have shelves and shelves of chicken books that I never open again after I read them. However, Melissa Caughey's previous book - A Kid's Guide to Keeping Chickens (no, its not just for kids) is pulled and used all the time, the pages are all highlighted and folded back with writing in the margins from use and I've made that darn chicken coin purse with families more times than I can count. Whenever I am talking to anyone about getting started, I always pull that book out, I know, this book is going to be the same way.

My husband says he's learned a lot from this book and recommends. We are new to raising chickens but it's mostly his thing. He has done so much research about chickens from their food to building a coop and is still learning.He says this has helped him to communicate better with the chickens. If you know someone that is new to raising chickens they might like this book.

Very insightful book. Amazing book on how to understand what your chicken are trying to tell you.

Purchased for a hostess gift at an Air bob which had chickens. A fun book.

I bought this book several years ago and am finally getting to my chicken project. This is the first book I've read. I think it's great for people just getting into chickens and for kids.This book was refreshing for me because I tend to read "technical" how-to stuff which is boring. For just starting this project, this book gave me some good motivation. It was very uplifting and fun. Facts mixed with short stories.I say it would be good for kids because the pages are nice quality with pictures on nearly every page. There's not any fluff...strictly information. Short snippets that kids wouldn't get bored reading it or having a parent read to the child.I read it in a couple of hours. I'd definitely recommend the book.

My 8 year old has spent hours memorizing how to speak chicken. She is having the time of her life. She loves this book. Fabulous book, great for adults too - if I could pry it out of her hands.