Crow Like You Know...

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Brad Anderson

bantam: small chicken – often with the same feather patterns as standard-size breeds

barring: contrasting stripes running across the feather

breed: a group of animals that resemble one another (either through selection and breeding or adaptation to the environment) and that, when mated, reproduce the same type

broiler: a young chicken of a heavy breed used for roasting

broody: interested in sitting on eggs to incubate them – in reference to hens

capon: castrated cockerel

chick: baby chicken

clean legged: lower legs and feet lacking feathers

cockerel: young male chicken

comb: fleshy growth on the head of a chicken – often red and more pronounced in males (see Page 59)

crest: feathers growing out of the head

feather footed: legs and feet covered with feathers

fryer: a young chicken suitable for frying

hackle: long, slender neck feathers

hen: mature female

lacing: contrasting feather edge color

penciling: narrow concentric to perpendicular markings on a feather

pullet: young female that has not yet begun to lay eggs

rooster: male with his sexual parts in working order

spangle: round or V-shaped feather tip of a contrasting color

spur: horn-like projection on the back of the leg above the claws; pronounced on roosters

stewing hen: large female no longer able to lay eggs and too tough to broil or fry

wattle: loose fold of bare skin on the cheek and neck – often red and more pronounced in roosters