Chicken Terms

Chickens have different titles for their different stages of life. Here are a few.

• Chick: A baby chicken
• Cockerel: A male chicken that is less than a year old
• Pullet: A female chicken that is less than a year old
• Cock: A male chicken that is a year old or older
• Hen: A female chicken that is a year old or older
• Rooster: A male chicken of any age
• Layer Hen: A hen raised specifically for laying eggs
• Breed: The type of chicken, such as Buff Orpingtons, Plymouth Rock, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Silkie, and Australorp
• Bantam: A small variety of chicken
• Broiler: A type of chicken bred for meat production
• Breeder: A person who breeds chickens for hobby or sale
• Hatchery: An organization that hatches chicks for sale

Chicken Anatomy

Do you know all of the ‘parts’ of a chicken? How about these?

• Crest: The feathers on top of a chicken's head
• Wattle: The fleshy part that hangs down under a chicken’s beak. Used to regulate heat.
• Comb: The fleshy part on top of a chicken's head
• Crop: This is a part of the digestive system. A chicken stores food in its crop while it is being digested. In smaller chickens, you can easily see and feel a full crop.
• Spurs: The sharp points that grow on the legs of a chickens (usually roosters)
• Cloaca: The hind end of a chicken’s digestive system
• Vent: the opening where eggs and waste leave the chicken’s body
• Pin: The part of a feather that first appears when a chicken goes through a molt
• Excreta: Chicken waste. It is a combination of both feces and urine that combine in the large intestine because chickens don’t have a bladder.

Chicken Behaviors

Chickens have all kinds of funny and cute behaviors. But did you know about these?

• Tid-bitting: When a rooster drops food in front of a hen and dances. A courtship ritual.
• Broody: When a hen is sitting on eggs, she is referred to as broody.
• Clutch: A group of eggs that a hen has gathered together to sit on and hatch. They don’t even have to be hers. Usually a group of 12 to 15 eggs.
• Roost: Chickens will return to their coop every night to sleep
• Crouch: A hen’s submissive posture showing she is ready to mate
• Molting: When chickens lose their feathers (generally in the fall) and grow new ones
• The egg-song: The delightful cackle a hen makes when she lays an egg. She’s often joined by her flockmates for an egg-song chorale!
• Crow: That unmistakable sound a rooster makes when he has something important to say. He could be announcing a predator, saying good morning, or calling his hens. In the absence of a rooster, some hens will also learn to ‘crow.’

Chicken Quarters

Where do your chickens live?

• Coop: A house for chickens where they can be locked in at night. These can be handbuilt, a converted shed, or a commercially made chicken coop. Whatever keeps them safe and dry.
• Pen Or Run: An open air, fenced in area where chickens can be outdoors but safe from predators.
• Free-range: Chickens who are allowed to roam freely during the day are free range.
• Roost: Ladder-like bars in a coop where chickens can sleep at night.
• Nest box: A small box-like area where chickens can have a little privacy to lay or sit on eggs
• Bedding: The substrate that you put in your chicken coops, such as pine shavings, straw, or pine pellets.
• Brooder: A brooder is a small cage or pen where chicks are raised. This is a draft-free, solid-bottomed enclosure with a heat source to protect small chicks.
• Litter: The bedding used in the bottom of a brooder or coop. Typically pine shavings or a similar substrate.

Eggs

• Candling: Holding an egg up to a very strong light to see if it is developing a chick
• Hatching: When a chick breaks free of its egg
• Incubator: A device used for hatching eggs. It keeps a consistent heat and humidity to mimic a mother hen.
• Fertile egg: An that has been fertilized by a rooster and has the potential to develop into a chick.
• Infertile egg: An egg that has not been fertilized by a rooster and therefore cannot develop into a chick.
• Pip: The first little hole made by a chick from the inside of the egg
• Zip: The way a chick seems to unzip the egg as it works its way out of the egg

Chicken Feed

We often refer to chicken food as chicken feed, especially when we get it in large bags from a mill or farm supply store. But did you know about these specific types of feed?

• Starter Grower Feed: Special feed formulated for chicks up to 16 to 20 weeks old
• Layer Feed: Feed formulated for hens to support healthy egg production
• All Flock: A special feed formula created for mixed flocks that may include chickens and other species
• Scratch: Corn and other basic grains that supplement regular chicken feed
• Grit: Crushed rock that helps chickens break down their food
• Oyster Shells: Oyster shells are ground up oyster shells that you can mix into your chicken’s feed. It provides extra calcium to support egg laying.

Drinking Water Supplements

• Electrolytes: Are essential minerals or ions like sodium, calcium, and potassium to help regulate body faction and are commonly supplemented during times of dehydration.
• Vitamins & Minerals: Are essential micronutrients required by chickens to maintain proper functions and health.
• Probiotics: Live microorganisms when fed directly to animals populate the GIT to positively stimulate digestion process & element pathogens.
• Prebiotics: Are soluble fibers that act as a food source specifically for beneficial microbes and probiotics.
• Microencapsulation: The process of coating a volatile feed ingredient to protect it from storage, handling, and outside elements.
• Active Dry Yeast: Is a fermentation product that works in unison with probiotics to positively leverage microflora populations and reduce intestinal pH.
• Enzymes: Are proteins that facilitate the metabolism or break down of feed components to ensure optimal nutrients are available for use by the chicken.
• EO (Essential Oils): Are typically derived from plants or plant parts through a process called distillation.
• Proteins: Highly complex substances comprised of amino acids which are essential to bodily function and tissue development.
• Dried Egg Product: Is simply pasteurized eggs that have been dehydrated, ground into a powder, and offered to animals as a supplement.
• Acidifiers: Are acids, or most commonly used in poultry supplements organic acids, which help lower intestinal pH.

The Better Flock™ Program is a scientifically based and farmer-tested program designed to provide wholesome solutions to all your flock needs and challenges.

• Avaplex®: A natural poultry health supplement to be applied in drinking water.
• Nutriplex-W™: A natural digestive aid poultry supplement to be applied in drinking water.

The goal is simple, when chicks come home or when hens are stressed, in a weak stage of life, or a feeling of emergency reach for the red label, Avaplex®. Avaplex will eliminate stress, develop or repair the gut, and get your chicken prepared for life.

Nutriplex-W™ then maintains your chicken during their daily life, keeps digestive systems happy, and helps hens produce the best eggs possible. Never be afraid to switch back and forth between the two products in the Better Flock™ program as needed to solve your current challenges!

*tandem: they work together but are not meant to be mixed or given to your chickens at the same time or at overlapping times. You’ll use one or the other at a given time and alternate between them