Today’s review is about UNDER THE HENFLUENCE by Tove Danovich. It’s part memoir about keeping chickens and part nonfiction about the influence chickens have on society. This is definitely an interesting read if you have even a minor interest in acquiring pet chickens.

Author: Tove Danovich
Series: None
Age Category: Adult
Publisher: Agate Publishing
Publish Date: March 28, 2023
Print Length: 232

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Official Synopsis

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.

My Review

Those seeking a tell-all about the chicken industry should look elsewhere. UNDER THE HENFLUENCE is instead about those who raise chickens and the cultural aspects related to that pastime. As someone who is curious about having a few backyard chickens, but cannot due to neighborhood rule, UNDER THE HENFLUENCE scratched that itch.

This book is part memoir, but only where the topic at hand requires some relatable context. So it is really more nonfiction than memoir, but in a narrative format that is easy to sink into. Each chapter covers a different topic, which worked well in terms of organization. Some chapters stood out more to me than others, such as the importance of the U.S. Postal Service to chick deliveries, the use of chickens as therapy animals, and the fact that egg production is seasonal.

Chickens are so ubiquitous that I never really stopped to think about how many exist on Earth at any one time. Or that my access to eggs year round is unnatural and that I unknowingly took it for granted. I also never stopped to think about what happens to all of the male chicks that hatch. The world values female chickens infinitely more than males thanks to the importance of the egg and because there is little love for the crows of roosters. Another important thing I learned is that chickens have their own health problems, too. And it can be difficult to solve the problem because there are few poultry vets. So keep that in mind if you hope to raise chickens as pets one day!

I don’t want to delve too much into each chapter since it might detract from a first-time reading experience. But suffice it to say this is a very interesting book that communicates other roles chickens have besides egg laying and becoming dinner. UNDER THE HENFLUENCE is a great read for any animal lover, whether you eat chicken or not. At the very least you may walk away with a better understanding of chickens, if not an appreciation for them.

Rating: 4
Content warnings: animal death
Reading format: Hardback