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

by Tove Danovich

An immersive blend of chicken-keeping memoir and animal welfare 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 60 billion chickens killed every year 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Nature, Memoir, Audiobook, Birds, Food

232 pages, Hardcover

First published March 28, 2023

About the author

Tove Danovich is the author of Under the Henfluence which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award.

She often writes about the relationship between humans and the natural world and how perceived domesticity or wildness changes how we see non-human animals. Her work on the subject has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Vox, Emergence, Orion, The Atlantic, and others and has been supported by Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology, PLAYA Summer Lake, and the Breadloaf Environmental Writing Conference.

She writes the column “Beyond Human” for Earth Island Journal and has a weekly newsletter called A Little Detour on Substack.

She lives in Portland, Oregon where she volunteers as a wildlife rehabber.

Reviews

[Tove Danovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this book and have read it at least nine times and am still somehow not sick of talking about chickens. I hope you will read it once (twice?) so we can talk about chickens together.

[Olive Fellows (abookolive) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me reading this was not good news for my husband because now I want chickens 🤣

[Anika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Under the Henfluence is a lot like hanging out with your most enthusiastic and knowledgeable chicken-loving friend. You're sure to be entertained and to learn something--even if, like me, you're the crazy chicken person in your own social circle--as Danovich takes you beyond her backyard to a hatchery in Iowa, a national poultry show in Ohio, and even to the island of Kauai, where the ubiquity and beauty of wild chickens reignited my own childlike love for the animals. With passionate reporting in every chapter, and compassion on every page, this book will make you appreciate how long-lived and deeply entrenched the human-chicken relationship is and compel you to consider what our responsibility is to these delightful and often misunderstood birds.

[JoNel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A d**m raccoon(s) emptied my chicken coop earlier this spring and I had decided I wasn't going to get anymore chicks... Then I read this book and was reminded of all the reasons I love keeping chickens. Soooooo, I'm tightening coop security and perusing the hatchery catalogs. Can't wait to have the bathtub full of day old chicks!

[Grace (alatteofliterature) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of this book starts with a nostalgic look at small backyard flocks and rural American women making “egg money,” then takes a tour an Iowa hatchery (I’ve been there!) and an OH poultry show before making a somewhat calculated dive off the ledge into why we shouldn’t eat chicken anymore.

TL;DR: birds are friends, not food

To say that modern chicken production is woefully different from my great-grandmother’s flock is an understatement, but the irony does not escape me that Grandma Marion made fried chicken too.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book mostly while hanging out with my chickens. Parts of it made me cry, not gonna lie. It was a really good balance of information, fun stories, and entreaties to learn more about and have more respect for these animals who we’ve changed so much and yet denigrate so harshly.

[Tina Chooses Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author's love for her backyard chickens shines through with stories about her own chickens, how chickens fare at egg hatcheries and what it's like to show chickens, too.

[Kristin Hirsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dangerous book bc now i want chickens

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first third was informative and energizing, and it had a good mix of personal narrative with inveatigative-type journalism. And then, that same format continued but without any sort of centralized point. We go from chick hatcheries to 4H clubs and urban hen-raising to chicken therapies to rescue chickens. I'm sure the piecemeal format works for some people, it just didn't quite work for me. (The author is a journalist, and it shows.)

Reading this book, I am enchanted enough by chickens, and am discouraged by their treatment. However, I don't think it will affect my choices going forward. I will still eat chicken, and though I will toy with having backyard chickens one day, I would be much more likely to keep bees.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Entertaining, informative, sometimes hard to read when it comes to the conditions a lot of animals live in to produce the excess food in our grocery stores.

[Kelly Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mom, (Sharon Wild) is friends with the author’s dad and told me about this book that his daughter wrote. That connection, plus the fact that Tove loves chickens as much as, if not more than I do, had me hooked from the beginning. I found the book to be very educational and enjoyable. Much of the information about chickens I knew after doing my own research before getting my first flock almost a year ago. But, I learned so much more about chicken history and the big industry of chicken farming. I was enlightened, entertained and sadly sometimes overwhelmed while reading the book. My eyes have been opened and I’m grateful for that. The author’s writing style and narrative voice were both great! I highly recommend reading Danovich’s book. I hope there will be more.

[Makayla Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was such a pleasure to stumble upon!! I wish I were responsible enough to care for chickens

I listened to the audiobook read by the author and it literally felt like I was having a conversation with myself from an alternate universe where I'm a poultry fanatic

Was genuinely the perfect mix of psychology, history, science, and memoir to where once the Ybor City mention came (#tampanative) I was convinced Danovich wrote this book just for me

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who kept backyard chickens for several years, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a memoir about the author's own flock of chickens (including two rescue former battery hens named Thelma and Louise), but also a fascinating inquiry into how humans have affected the chicken. Chapters take the reader on visits to a commercial hatchery that sends day old chicks to backyard chicken hobbyists through the mail, a national chicken fanciers show, a chicken clicker-training class, and to a town where wild chickens roost in the trees. Though gentle and never scolding in tone, the author does not hesitate to point out the dark side of chicken ownership (e.g. many male chicks are killed because they are not desired or allowed as pets), and makes clear the poor conditions that egg laying and broiler hens are kept in, particularly in the US.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has chickens or is interested in backyard chickens, as well as those concerned about where their food comes from.

[Laura Birnbaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very light, tongue-in-cheek animal book a la Mary Roach, thought you could probably spend this much time with any species and fall in love. This book was a Culture Study recommendation.

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great listen to, especially if you want chickens or on the fence about chickens or even if you have chickens already. This is great insight into the chicken world and a great historical account of how chickens came to be in our world. I learned so much. Now, I'm searching for my own Thelma & Louise chickens.

[Kristina Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well. Now I own six chickens.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The *best book about chickens that I’ve read this year



*only

[Colleen Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very charming read if you like chickens (I do!) or if you want information about the chicken and egg industry. Educational and thought provoking.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nonfiction. I love reading books like these, where the person writing is so interested in the topic that you can feel their enthusiasm through the pages. Since this book is about chickens, and I was already interested in the world of chickens, it was an easy decision to start to read. Danovich writes about chickens from many different angles, doing multiple on-site interviews with experts. She visits a hatchery that sends out chicks by mail, a national poultry show, an industrial chicken set-up, a chicken sanctuary, and a town in Georgia that has a population of wild chickens. She lovingly talks about starting her own flock and how her flock grows and changes over the years. Tough topics, like the fate of roosters at the hatchery, or the quality of life for chickens that never go outside, are addressed honestly without euphemism. Overall the book shows the state of chickens today and inspires curiosity and admiration for these birds.

[Cass (the_midwest_library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fabulous micro history covering the community and culture around keeping chickens. The book actually explores this really interesting line that chickens walk between farm animal (commodity driven) and pet. There's a lot of layers to the amount of care the animals receive, the moral and ethical questions that arise in these instances. And also just how chicken keeping can fall in and out of trend. I really liked this. I read the first half and did the audiobook (narrated by the author) for the second half!

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having found such incredible joy (and sometimes heartache) in my own backyard flock, this book was a wonderful journey inside the world of chicken owners and how these birds came to be such an important part of our lives. It also opened my eyes to how behind our country is in regards to legislation protecting chickens and how they are treated on a commercial scale. I hope I can be some small part of the movement to advocate for better treatment of these special little animals.

[Abbey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the chicken book I’ve been looking for!!!

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heard about this book from my favorite podcast ologies when they interviewed the author! It did not disappoint.

Personal stories of the author’s own flock mix with educational information about wild chickens, commercial chicken farms, chicken shows, chicken rescuers and everything in between a lovely celebration and sad behind the scenes look at the lives of these lovely birds.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adore Tove Danovich's tone throughout this book. I became a chicken mom during quarantine and my coop has never been empty since. This book is so relatable and answers so many questions I didn't even know I had! Definitely going to be on my top 5 books of the year!

[Kendall Liberty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m just obsessed with chickens

[Kaitlyn Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love chickens you will love this charming chicken book filled with chicken stories, information, and background. It’s delightful, just like my feathered friends!

[Martha☀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

How could I resist another book about chicken-keeping? I'm powerless!
Danovich and I would get along famously. I spend a lot of time telling others about my flock of 12 and trying to show them that chickens are truly pets. Some come when they're called, some like to play games with me, some hop on my lap for early morning snuggles and some come right over to tell me that they are sick or scared. Danovich has the same experiences with her flock and is spreading the word with her cute, touching and devastating tales of chicken-keeping.

Sandwiched in between all the stories, Danovich digs into the world of chickens - from visiting a hatchery to attending a chicken-fancier show, from tracing the history of industrialized egg and meat production to the perils of being an unwanted rooster in a hen's world.

Although the deep dives into these areas was comprehensive and informative, it felt too much like a textbook required reading. Frankly I was bored and wanted to get back to the cute stories again.
I suppose that this ⬆️ is exactly the problem with educating people about chickens. Most people don't want to be schooled in the dark side of industrial animal agriculture and just want to be surprised and entertained by the funny antics of this atypical pet as they ask for a second helping of wings.

This is a great read for anyone - whether you watch regular episodes of 'Chicken TV' from your porch or prefer your chicken with hot sauce and football.
Danovich doesn't lecture or try to persuade you to become vegan. She simply gives a window into the lives of the most populous animal on the planet.

[Melissa Rochelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been on my TBR list for several months, but I realized this week after reading What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird and seeing it in Montgomery's references that I could borrow the audiobook/ebook combo from the library. It just hadn't occurred to me before.

The delay was good as I was also a little burnt out on chicken-reading after my deep dive when we first got our girls in February 2023 (this book was published in April 2023). In those first few months with our girls, I read:

--How to Speak Chicken: Why Your Chickens Do What They Do & Say What They Say,
--Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization,
--The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket,
--The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World, and
--The Chicken Chronicles: Sitting with the Angels Who Have Returned with My Memories: Glorious, Rufus, Gertrude Stein, Splendor, Hortensia, Agnes of God, The Gladyses, & Babe

(plus books I didn't document in a reading tracker like:

--Epic Eggs: The Poultry Enthusiast's Complete and Essential Guide to the Most Perfect Food and
--multiple by Gail Damerow).

It began a further exploration into nature-focused books which eventually led to my current interest in birds -- not just the domesticated ones in my backyard.

Under the Henfluence is an excellent addition for anyone wanting to learn more about chickens or a lover of nature-themed memoirs. It is a mix of information on the history of chicken-tending, ethical explorations on domestication and industrial farming, and memoir of the author's experiences raising her own ladies -- which is very much a life experience I can relate to as you can see from the reading journey I took.

It is interesting to me that both Sy Montgomery and Tove Danovich no longer have chickens, Montgomery due to predators and Danovich due to divorce (her chickens now live at a bed and breakfast). It seems to confirm a point Danovich raises in the book -- people don't view chickens as permanent members of their household. They are not like dogs where "custody" is split, but pets that are easier to leave behind or move to a new location. A species one can have or not have; a hobby picked up and dropped. (I am not questioning either author's love of their chickens, but it is an interesting fact about both authors.)

We have had to re-home a rooster, say goodbye to a sick chicken, and had 5 die unexpectedly -- Rhea Chickley, Lady Kluck, Amber, Ruby, and a member of our quadruplets collectively called Lavender Haze. My girls are definitely a therapeutic outlet who helped me dig my way out of a dark and anxious place. Two of my girls are constant companions when I'm outside, sitting with me when I read (Henrietta and Opal <3), and half of them squat for me when I visit with them on breaks throughout the day. I'm still not of a mind to take a chicken to a vet or pay for a chicken autopsy, but I was raised on a hobby farm where animals were animals --not pets -- so the attention I give to my chickens is seen as bizarre by most of my family (several family members work at a chicken processing plant in my home town). We even attempted culling, a task my husband took on and one we are unlikely to do again. I do still eat chicken, but beyond the two well-loved hens in my freezer (Peck and Mother Clucker), we will not eat our hand-raised chickens in the future. My older girls lay fewer eggs than they did during their first year, but we still have plenty of eggs for our family of 3 with enough to share with others.

We even have a nearby neighborhood with feral chickens roaming around (and one with peacocks - both in Glendale). I definitely related to this book.

[Mia Burbage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Under the Henfluence 🐓 nonfiction, audio 🎧⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Highly recommend for anyone interested in where your food comes from, chicken husbandry and history. The tone is light, honest from the writers POV and factual. While I personally don’t agree with everything, it was an enjoyable read for this chicken lady.