Keeping Chickens: Terminology

Sorry, not a very exciting post this week, but what I feel is an important one for new chicken owners.

Terminology

There is often a lot of terminology and slang thrown about with any subject, and chickens are no exception. Here is a list of some of the terminology, abbreviations, acronyms and slang that one might come across regarding chickens.

Chick - A baby chicken
Pullet - A female chicken under 1 year old
Hen - A female chicken over 1 year old
Broody - A hen who is sitting on a clutch of eggs
Cockerel - A male chicken under 1 year old
Rooster - A male chicken under 1 year old
Hooster - A female chicken who has taken on rooster traits, such as crowing, and growing a larger comb/wattles.
Chook - Australian slang for chicken

Spurs - Horn like growths on the legs of roosters.
Wattles - Red fleshy growths that hang from the throat, just below the beak. Males have larger wattles than females.
Comb - The red fleshy growth on top of a chicken's head. They vary in size and shape depending on the breed. Males have larger combs than females.
Full Beak - A chicken who has not had their top beak trimmed. This mostly happens with commercial birds, such as the Isa Browns to stop cannibalism in commercial settings.

Candling - The art of using a torch or bright light to illuminate the interior of an egg to check development of an embryo.
Bloodspot - A spot of blood sometimes found inside eggs, it doesn't indicate fertility and is not a partially formed embryo.

OEG - Old English Game, a breed of chicken
RIR - Rhode Island Red, a breed of chicken

Blue - Dark grey feathers
Lavender - Light grey feathers
Laced - The outside edge of the feathers is a different colour to the centre, when on the bird it gives a laced effect.



Having trouble understanding anything or want some other aspect of chickens explained?
This will be a post that will often be edited to incorporate more terminology. Please feel free to leave comments if you need want explained or explained further. :)