Chicken Scratches: Nyack Backyard: A More Humane Egg

Chicken Glossary

Brooder – a heated enclosure for keeping baby chicks warm during their first several weeks, until they can grow insulating feathers

Broody hen – a hen whose maternal hormones trigger her instinct to stop laying and hatch a clutch of eggs and care for the chicks that hatch out

Capon – neutered/castrated male chicken

Clutch – a group of eggs laid or incubated together

Cockerel – a male chicken under one year of age

Comb – the red-colored flesh on top of a chicken’s head

Coop – a cage or house for chickens

Crop – an expandable portion of the esophagus where food is stored before digestion

Fledge – to grow feathers

Hackles – the long, narrow feathers on the neck; sometimes collectively called a “cape”

Hen – a female chicken of egg-laying age, at least one year old

Incubator – a heat-regulated device for hatching fertile eggs

Litter – the absorbent bedding material, such as wood shavings, on the floor of a chicken house

Molt (also moult) – the annual period of time when chickens shed their feathers (can be triggered by hormones or stress

Primaries – the ten large, stiff flight feathers on each wing

Pullet –an immature female chicken, less than one year

old

Roost – a perch for resting and sleeping

Rooster – an adult, intact male chicken

Setting – sitting on eggs to hatch chicks

Sexing – determining gender of newly hatched chicks

Vent – the external opening, through which the chicken eliminates waste and lays eggs

Wattle – the red-colored flesh hanging from a chicken’s chin

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Nyack Backyard: A More Humane Egg

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