Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them

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An immersive blend of chicken-keeping memoir and culture reporting by a journalist who accidentally became obsessed with her flock.

Since first domesticating the chicken thousands of years ago, humans have become exceptionally adept at raising them for food. Yet most people rarely interact with chickens or know much about them. In Under the Henfluence, culture reporter Tove Danovich explores the lives of these quirky, mysterious birds who stole her heart the moment her first box of chicks arrived at the post office.

From a hatchery in Iowa to a chicken show in Ohio to a rooster rescue in Minnesota, Danovich interviews the people breeding, training, healing, and, most importantly, adoring chickens. With more than 26 billion chickens living on industrial farms around the world, theyre easy to dismiss as just another dinner ingredient. Yet Danovichs reporting reveals the hidden cleverness, quiet sweetness, and irresistible personalities of these birds, as well as the complex human-chicken relationship that has evolved over centuries. This glimpse into the lives of backyard chickens doesnt just help us to understand chickens betterit also casts light back on ourselves and what weve ignored throughout the explosive growth of industrial agriculture. Woven with delightful and sometimes heartbreaking anecdotes from Danovichs own henhouse, Under the Henfluence proves that chickens are so much more than what they bring to the table.

Reviews

A heartfelt account of raising pet hens. . . Anyone whos mulled the possibility of setting up a backyard coop will find this the next best thing. Publishers Weekly

Not intended to be a how-to for amateur poultry breeders, Danovichs work does offer broad and compelling insight into how raising chickens transforms and enriches human lives. Booklist

Under the Henfluence clocks our obsession with chicken-keeping. Highbrow / Brilliant. New York Magazine

Share[s] the life-enhancing joys of the humble hen. The Sunday Times

A realistic and immersive look into our relationship with those beings in our care. . . Under the Henfluence makes it impossible for the reader not to think ofand possibly lovethe idea of chickens in a new way. Mira Ptacin, Modern Farmer

I enjoyed every single page. Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., Psychology Today

A call to arms, but in an entertainingly written, well-paced way. It certainly makes you think. Kate Green, Country Life

Author Bio

Tove Danovich is a freelance journalist who has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Ringer, Backyard Poultry Magazine, and many others. She is a former Midwesterner, turned New Yorker, who now lives in Portland, Oregon. She keeps eight chickens in her suburban yard and hopes to add more. Their Instagram @BestLittleHenhouse is more popular than hers. You can find her on Twitter @TKDano.