Warm boot recommendations please

[Leicester_H]

My husband has been "told off" by a farming friend for calling our two girls chickens - she insists they are hens.

 

Views, comments ?? (legal definitions!!)

 

Hazel

[Olly]

Before I got mine, I thought 'chickens' were young - er, hens - and that 'hens' were the grown up ones.

 

Now I find it helpful to think of 'chicken' as food, and 'hens' as the delightful fluffy things that stroll around the garden.

 

I don't know if there is a legal definition! A quick dictionary search suggests I was right: 'chicken' = the young of the domestic fowl, especially when less than a year old. 'Hen' = adult female bird.

 

I prefer to call them 'chooks' anyway!

[Guest]

Interesting!

 

I'd suggest 'chickens' is a general term to accommodate all hens, cocks, cockerels, pullets, chicks etc. 'Hens' might be accurate for laying females.

 

I'm sure I read somewhere that 'Cock' is the proper term for an adult male and 'cockerel' is a young male.

 

I'm sure there'll be someone more knowledgeable soon!

[Charlottechicken]

I don't know if there is a legal definition! A quick dictionary search suggests I was right: 'chicken' = the young of the domestic fowl, especially when less than a year old. 'Hen' = adult female bird.

 

That was my understanding of the difference too, Olly

 

In my mini Oxford dictionary it describes chicken as young domestic bird, and cockerel as young cock, and hen as adult female, cock as adult male. Pullet is a young domestic fowl before moulting, apparantly (is that correct?) So Ginette is correct with her definition of cockerel and cock.

 

I suppose most people call them chickens because in commercial circumstances they are killed before becoming adults

[theherd123]

I keep chickens therefore i am a chicken keeper!

[Gallina]

I eat chicken, but keep hens.

 

The big Oxford English Dictionary, gives the first definition of "chicken" as "The young of the domestic fowl; its flesh", and the fourth meaning as "A domestic fowl of any age". The first example they can find of the use of the latter is 1827, so certainly historically "hen" was the word.

[geb0205]

'cockerel' is a young male.

 

Or, if you are a hen keeper in the farming community in North Yorkshire, a "cockbod"! I simply love that word!

[xScrunchee]

I always thought that chickens were the species and then hen is a laying female, cockerel a male and so on. Like cats are the species but you have toms, shes etc.

[Lesley]

I call mine chickens until they have their first moult and then they are hens.

 

I love the word 'cockbods'

[Olly]

I always thought that chickens were the species and then hen is a laying female, cockerel a male and so on. Like cats are the species but you have toms, shes etc.

 

I think that's right Jay - but I couldn't put it that neatly! I like to say I have hens, because chicken is so much associated with 'Chicken Tonight' 'Chicken Tikka Masala' 'Chicken Nuggets' etc.

 

'Hens' sounds more farm-yard, somehow.

[Charlottechicken]

Or, if you are a hen keeper in the farming community in North Yorkshire, a "cockbod"! I simply love that word!

 

That's what my Grandad used to call them!

 

I haven't heard that word for ages

[mountainboarddude]

a pullet is a young domestic fowl before it has layed its first egg, after it becomes a hen. a cock becomes a cockeral after it has started to crow and has matured

[Guest]

a pullet is a young domestic fowl before it has layed its first egg, after it becomes a hen. a cock becomes a cockeral after it has started to crow and has matured

I think it's the other way round - the cockerel becomes a cock.

[starboyhull]

"chicken" is just is just the general term for either sex.......Sure I read that in the book we got, the one written by the omlet guys.....