Since working on the farm, i’ve become accustomed to the chicken ‘slang’ that so many breeders and poultry experts use in their everyday lives. I, being a designer, had absolutely no clue what they were on about. I spent a lot of time googling, so for anyone who is in the same situation that I was in 6 months ago, i’ve made it easier for you. Below is a list of words that are used everyday in the world of chickens.
Hatchery - A company that specialises in hatching chicks and providing the farms with the day old chicks.
Pullet - A female chicken that’s not quite a chick and not yet laying eggs. They are the chicken equivalent to a teenager.
Chick - A baby chicken.
Cockerel/ Rooster/ Cock - A male chicken.
Hen - A female chicken that is old enough to lay.
Bantam - A smaller version of different breeds. They are normally about 1/2 the size of ‘large fowl’ chickens.
Production Layer - Chicken breeds that lay an abundance of eggs consistently. Normally used on egg farms.
Broiler - A chicken that’s been bred for meat and no egg production.
Layers - Hens that are laying eggs.
Straight Run - A batch of chicks that is unsexed and contains both male and female birds.
Sexed - When the sex has been determined on the birds.
Chicken Anatomy:
Shaft - The hard thing that the feathers grow out of.
Comb - The red/pink fleshy bits that sits on the birds beak and forehead.
Vent - The omni-hole that chicken poo and the eggs come out of.
Gizzard - A hard muscular stomach that grinds down food.
Crop - An organ in the chest that stores food to be processed by the gizzard.
Leg Scales - The dinosaur like scales on the hens legs down to your chickens feet.
Spur - The big scary nail that sticks out of a cockerels leg. They are used as daggers when fighting.
Wattle - The things that dangle down from your chickens beak.
Hackles - The feathers on the neck that are raised when the bird is getting ready to fight.
Saddle Feathers - The long, lovely feathers around the cockerels bum.
Chick tooth - chicks are born with this on their beaks to help them break through the shells. It’ll drop off in time.
Down - the super fluff that a chick is born with
Chicken Health Terminology:
Mite - Insects that live in the coop and feast on the hens, they are a blood sucking insect and can be a real nuisance to your girls.
Coccidosis - Super horrible parasite in the digestive tract, can be fatal to the birds.
Marek’s Disease - A virus that can cause a chickens eyes to change colour, can cause paralysis and lesions.
Bumblefoot - An infection on the bottom of a chickens foot.
Egg Bound - When a hen has trouble getting her egg out and it gets stuck.
Dust Bath - This is how your chickens keep themselves clean, they roll around in the dirt and flap their wings about.
Molt - Chicken shed some of their feathers and grow new ones.
New Castles Disease - A Contagious poultry virus that can be passed onto humans.
Diatomaceous Earth (DE) - This is a super dust that is great for dust baths and treating chickens for parasites.
Hopefully these definitions will help you understand ‘chicken people’ a little bit more!