Melissa is the creative force behind her award winning blog, Tilly's Nest. Since 2012, she has been sharing her adventures in backyard chicken keeping, beekeeping, gardening, crafting and cooking. In addition, Melissa is also a nurse practitioner. Her freelance work can be seen in places such as HGTV, DIY Network, Angie's List, Grit Magazine, Community Chickens and Keeping Backyard Bees and she travels the country speaking on a variety of topics at both public and private events. Melissa has been featured on NPR and in People Magazine, Reader's Digest, Forbe's Magazine and Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. Her first book, A Kid's Guide to Keeping Chickens, won the Learning Magazine Teacher's Choice Award and the American Academy for the Advancement of Science's Prize for Excellence in Science Books. Her second book, How to Speak Chicken, has been named as one of the Best Bird and Birding Books of 2017 by Forbes Magazine and awarded the Silver in the Foreward INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Pets and Animals Category. Her most recent book- How to Read a Chicken's Mind- is now available for presale and releases in early 2025. Melissa calls Cape Cod home.
