- Jun 23, 2013
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I am new to BYC and I'm a bit confused about nomenclature. For example, some people call their chickens just 'chickens', some 'hens' and some 'girls' (I may have missed some OTHER name.) At any rate I am trying to put this together. I went on line and here is what I came up with:
"A young chicken from hatch to five weeks of age is called a chick. A male chicken less than one
year of age is a cockerel; a female through her first laying year may be referred to as a pullet. A
mature male chicken greater than one year of age is referred to as a cock or rooster; a mature female
greater than one year old may be called a hen."
From:
http://im.itcs.illinois.edu/ak17supp.pdf
That would seem to be it, except there are also guinea hens, so I think you'd have to say 'chicken hens' to be quite clear. But that's a mouthful, and some people would think you were being redundant, which I think you are if only chickens are in the vicinity. So then I think the solution is to preface the use of the word 'hens' by some antecedent sentence or clause that identifies the birds on hand as chickens, such as: 'These are my chickens, they're all hens, thank goodness, the roosters are too noisy, so I got rid of them'. Whew, now that make sense, but as I said I think too wordy to be convenient.
Okay, the use of the term 'girls' is not okay with me. It's downright sexist. First of all, in that way of putting things you'd really have to call them 'women'. It's demeaning to call full-grown hens 'girls', just the way it's demeaning to call a woman a 'chick'. Second, again putting things this way the roosters would rightfully have to be called 'men' but even that isn't going far enough as most roosters are more mature than most men; in other words, in this instance it's demeaning to the rooster.
Am I taking this all too seriously???
"A young chicken from hatch to five weeks of age is called a chick. A male chicken less than one
year of age is a cockerel; a female through her first laying year may be referred to as a pullet. A
mature male chicken greater than one year of age is referred to as a cock or rooster; a mature female
greater than one year old may be called a hen."
From:
http://im.itcs.illinois.edu/ak17supp.pdf
That would seem to be it, except there are also guinea hens, so I think you'd have to say 'chicken hens' to be quite clear. But that's a mouthful, and some people would think you were being redundant, which I think you are if only chickens are in the vicinity. So then I think the solution is to preface the use of the word 'hens' by some antecedent sentence or clause that identifies the birds on hand as chickens, such as: 'These are my chickens, they're all hens, thank goodness, the roosters are too noisy, so I got rid of them'. Whew, now that make sense, but as I said I think too wordy to be convenient.
Okay, the use of the term 'girls' is not okay with me. It's downright sexist. First of all, in that way of putting things you'd really have to call them 'women'. It's demeaning to call full-grown hens 'girls', just the way it's demeaning to call a woman a 'chick'. Second, again putting things this way the roosters would rightfully have to be called 'men' but even that isn't going far enough as most roosters are more mature than most men; in other words, in this instance it's demeaning to the rooster.
Am I taking this all too seriously???
