Fascinated by chickens? You are in good company. Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Mark Twain are just a few of the great names who have written about the mysteries of roosters, hens, chicks, and eggs. In Praise of Chickens provides centuries of poultry lore gathered from scientists, artists, poets, philosophers, breeders, sellers, feather fanciers, and egg-coddlers through the ages. Ever wonder if chickens have their very own vocabulary, how to get hens to lay in winter, or why churches have weathervanes shaped like roosters? Can't remember which royal court it was where the ladies hatched eggs in their bosoms? Whether you want the earliest recorded instructions on how to hypnotize a chicken, or nineteenth-century tips on sending a year's supply of fresh eggs to your child in college, you'll find the answer here, along with portraits of prize-winning breeds both fierce and fluffy. In Praise of Chickens is full of information both practical and frivolous (and who can have enough of either sort?), wonderful pictures, ample poultry trivia for at least a year of dinner party or Chicken Meet-Up conversations, and a way of connecting with a time when living closer to the natural world was normal, honorable, and fun.