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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, they're easy to dismiss as just another dinner ingredient. Yet Danovich's 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 doesn't just help us to understand chickens better-it also casts light back on ourselves and what we've ignored throughout the explosive growth of industrial agriculture. Woven with delightful and sometimes heartbreaking anecdotes from Danovich's own henhouse, Under the Henfluence proves that chickens are so much more than what they bring to the table.
List of contents
Introduction
Chickens at Home
Chapter One: Make Way for Chickens
Chapter Two: United States Poultry Service
Chapter Three: The Lost Chick Call
Chapter Four: A Cure for Chickens
Chickens on Display
Chapter Five: There’s No Business Like Poultry Show Business
Chapter Six: 4-H is for the Birds
Chapter Seven: Cheep Therapy
Chapter Eight: How to Train Your Chicken
Chickens in the Wild
Chapter Nine: Winter Eggs
Chapter Ten: Chicks Gone Wild
Chapter Eleven: What to Do with All the Roos?
Chapter Twelve: The Chicken Who Didn’t Know How to Be a Chicken
Epilogue: Coming Home to Roost
About the author
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.
Summary
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, they’re easy to dismiss as just another dinner ingredient. Yet Danovich’s 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 doesn’t just help us to understand chickens better—it also casts light back on ourselves and what we’ve ignored throughout the explosive growth of industrial agriculture. Woven with delightful and sometimes heartbreaking anecdotes from Danovich’s own henhouse, Under the Henfluence proves that chickens are so much more than what they bring to the table.
Foreword
- An Indies Introduce selection
- National print, broadcast, and online reviews, interviews, and features
- Promotion to culture outlets
- Promotion to nature and environmental outlets
- Promotion to regional media (Portland, OR)
- Social media campaign, including giveaways
