Familiarize yourself with these terms to get a hold of chicken raising.
Bantam – chicken variety that is about half the size of the standard breed of chickens. These breeds are typically bred for ornamental good reasons.
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Bedding – can both be shavings of wood, haystack pile, or newspaper that are added to the floor of the coop and inside a nest box. The purpose of this is for absorption of droppings and odor of chicken poop. It additionally provides as cushion for eggs to be safely ejected from its mother without the worry of breaking it.
Brood – this could both mean the hens incubating their chicks or a flock of baby chickens.
Broodiness – a chicken’s desire to incubate their babies – unfertilized or fertilized. Broodiness can make an egg hatch or spoil it. There are a lot of elements that may arise in being broody. And the mother is often a bit moody when she is manifesting broodiness.
Candling – is often a procedure wherein a candle or a light bulb is practiced. Its the process letting light shine through an egg to figure out if it’s fertilized or not. Candling can be helpful especially if you are planning to separate the eggs with growing embryo and those that you wanted to sell.
Capon – a rooster that has been recently castrated.
Clutch – fertilized egg groups that hens tend to incubate.
Cockerel – a juvenile or young rooster.
Comb – this is the rubbery, red flat piece of flesh hanging on top of a chicken’s head. Roosters have a extra prominent comb than hens. Several who are engaged in cock fighting preferred to cut the rooster’s comb so as not to interfere with the fight.
Coop – house of chickens.
Crop – Part of a chicken’s digestive system that can be found inside the esophagus wherein food is initially digested ahead of entering the stomach.
Droppings Tray – a tray that collects chicken droppings, which is located under poles for fast disposal.
Dust bath – A pattern of chicken behavior wherein they dig a hole in the ground and immerse their bodies in earth that has been loosened. They will get down and dirty until they get satisfied. Bathing in dust is often a kind of defense mechanism to protect chickens from lice and mites that may invade their feathers and feed on their blood. A dust bath can either be natural or artificial.
Feeder – a container that delivers and holds feeds for chickens.
Fertilized egg – an egg that came from mating of a rooster and a hen and is destined to become a baby.
Grit – bits of rock or sand bits that chickens tend to eat and is stored inside the crop that is crucial for very good digestion.
Hackles – chicken’s neck feathers.
Hen – female chicken.
Incubation – procedure of egg hatching in which application of heat is required. The eggs that are incubated are those that are already fertilized. Constant heat, usual turning, and an environment that is humid are the very important needs of an egg that furthermore comes in with the period. Incubation takes about 21 days before the eggs are expected to hatch.
Layer feed – a feed that is complete and is made for the sake of laying hens.
Molt or molting – this is the course of action of feather shedding and re-growing which happens one time a year. When molting season comes, laying season is suspended.
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