About this item
Best-selling author Melissa Caughey knows that backyard chickens are like any favorite pet - fun to spend time with and fascinating to observe. Her hours among the flock have resulted in this quirky, irresistible guide packed with firsthand insights into how chickens communicate and interact, use their senses to understand the world around them, and establish pecking order and roles within the flock. Combining her up-close observations with scientific findings and interviews with other chicken enthusiasts, Caughey answers unexpected questions such as Do chickens have names for each other? How do their eyes work? and How do chickens learn?
About the Author
Melissa Caughey is a nurse practitioner, backyard chicken keeper, beekeeper, and master gardener. She spent her early childhood growing up in rural New Jersey with many fond memories of her best friend's dairy farm. In her late teens, she moved to Los Angeles and spent over 15 years there as a "city girl". Over 10 years ago, Melissa and her husband decided to move back East and settle on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. After putting down new roots and growing a family, the gardening and farming seeds that were planted in her heart years ago began to sprout.
While working just a half acre of cleared land in a suburban setting, Melissa has enjoyed sharing her love of gardening and chickens with her family. This journey was so amazing and influential on her family's lives that she decided to begin writing down these precious memories. Over the past six years, Melissa has shared her family's adventures on her award winning blog, Tilly's Nest. There, insight into keeping a flock, life's lessons, chicken care, crafts, gardening, heartwarming stories chronicling their adventures, beekeeping and more are bursting from the pages.
Melissa can also be found writing for HGTV, HGTV Gardens, DIY Network, Mother Earth News publications, Community Chickens, Keeping Backyard Bees and contributes to Country Living Magazine. Her blog has received the Blue Ribbon Blogger Award from Country Living Magazine and has been named one of the Top 10 Gardening Blogs by Better Homes and Gardens Magazine in 2014 and 2016. She travels around the country giving lectures about chickens, gardening and beekeeping. Her first book, A Kid's Guide to Keeping Chickens, has won the 2016 Learning Magazine Teacher's Choice Award and the 2016 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books.
