Windy Meadows Chicken, Lamb and Beef, Grass finished, pasture fed

Candle – a method to see inside an egg. A box with a candle (or other light source) inside has a hole slightly narrower than the average egg. When an egg is placed on the opening and viewed in a darkened room, one can tell if an egg has begun the stages of development to in order to become a chick.

Hackle feathers – the neck feathers of a chicken. When a chicken sitting on eggs or with her chicks is disturbed, her hackle feathers stand out from her neck, similar to the way a person’s hair stands on end. If this happens, you had better be ready to “fight or flight” because she is about to come flying at you!

Coop – the pen, usually small of some sort of wire fencing, for housing chickens. Chickens kept in this kind of confined space will literally eat every green thing in the pen and have nothing but a dirt floor. Wouldn’t that drive you crazy?

Lousy – birds confined in too close a space for too long will often get chicken lice and be uncomfortable

Off the perch – A chicken normally spends the night on the “roost”, which is a pole or rounded board that runs across the length of the hen house several feet off the ground. A chicken that doesn’t feel well will not even make the attempt to fly up to the perch (roost) and will spend the night huddled on the floor.

Mad wet hen – Chickens do not like to get wet for any reason and spraying water on them is the ultimate insult.

Nest egg – Chickens will often ignore empty nests and lay their eggs where there are previously laid eggs. If you go in and re-arrange the eggs to redistribute them into more nests, hens will lay them in the other egg-containing nests as well.

Chicken feed – contrary to popular belief, chicken feed is not cheap, especially when you are having it specially ground to your specifications and does not include added antibiotics and growth hormones!

Cockerel – young rooster
Pullet – young hen

Chicken Idioms

In our country’s not-too-remote history it was very a common practice to own a small flock of chickens for the family’s use. From this heritage comes a multitude of chicken idioms that were (and in some places still are) common in everyday speech.

For instance, chicken idioms are commonly used to describe people. You may hear of someone being called a “good egg” but if you have ever caught a whiff of an egg gone bad, you would never want to be called a ”rotten egg”. Then there are those who are “thin shelled” and can’t take any bumps in life at all without getting “cracked”. There are also “hard shelled” people who won’t let others see what they’re really like. Those individuals are hard to “candle” in order to see what is “developing” inside of them. Someone who is “hard-boiled” is an especially hard case.

A “momma hen” may guard her chicks with surprising fierceness and will get her “hackles raised” if you threaten her young. When the little ones are cold or frightened, this “old mother hen” will “take them under her wing” and comfort them until you “can’t hear a peep out of them”.

Now a “spring chicken” is a young tender thing, but a “tough old bird” has been around for a while. In the same way, a young cockerel may “be a chicken” and get “hen pecked”, but later may “rule the roost” and “have something to crow about”.

Emotions find their expressions in the barnyard as well. When someone is not feeling well he may “feel lousy” or “off his perch”. Another may suffer from being “cooped up”, but that’s what you can expect from a “yard bird”. It “cracks me up” to hear the “cackling laughter” of others enjoying a practical joke, but when the joke turns on them, they may get “madder than a wet hen”. When times are especially tough, don’t “lose your head” and panic. Jumping about in every direction without a plan is as if you are “running around like a chicken with your head cut off.”

Instead, when it is time to gather up all that is precious, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” in case a tragedy strikes. Yet, putting a little “nest egg” by will encourage other treasures to follow. If these eggs are tended carefully, you’ll be able to “see what hatches out”. But whatever you do, “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” and misjudge the result of your efforts.

Well, what can you do with all of these chicken idioms? Pass them on. But listen for others, as these are just “chicken feed”.

The Natural Choice for the Best-Tasting Chicken