Glossary

Broody hen, broody box, broody patch and henopause:

A hen that wants to start a family will go broody. This ideally involves gathering eggs, plucking out feathers from her belly to produce a special egg warming spot (broody patch), sitting on a nest in an unmovable fashion and being very grumpy to anyone wanting to disturb her or shift her off the nest.
Sometimes hens can be convinced to do all this in a specially made, protective broody box but usually they prefer to choose their own, often highly unsuitable, nest. When a hen has reached the end of her egg laying years she is said to have reached henopause.

Chicken Community College and Unipeck:

Free education for chickens provided by the government of New Zealand. After attaining a certain level of schooling a chicken can learn a trade at the Community College or work towards a degree at the Unipeck. Or they can stay at home and lay eggs, have dust baths and scratch up bugs.

Comb and wattles:

The red fleshy bits on a chicken’s head: comb up top, wattles down below. The wattles mainly come in small, medium or large but the combs come in a surprising variety of weird and wonderful shapes. These often have prosaically obvious names such as the pea, single, or V.
These fascinating protuberances serve two purposes: they help cool the bird in hot climates and they attract attention for mating purposes. Humans can also use changes in them to monitor the health of their chickens.

Crop, gizzard, cloaca:

Crop: the first stomach, used to store food.
Gizzard: the second stomach, where food is ground up with the help of gravel that the chicken collects. Very handy if you don’t have teeth!
Cloaca: The ‘one opening to rule them all’ of the animal kingdom. Wees, poos, eggs, sperm – it all happens here!

Mites, fleas, lice and dust baths:

Disgusting little pests that make chicken’s lives very unpleasant or worse. The most prevalent are perhaps the scaly mites that lift the scales on the chicken’s legs causing irritation, infection and unsightliness. The best people based cures for fleas and lice involve clean houses and sprays – preferably natural ones. The best chicken based cures are vigorous dust baths in lovely fine, dry sand or soil. This dislodges the vermin and is very pleasurable for a chicken.

Pecking order:

The hierarchy of the flock, enforced by pecking, shoving, body placement etc. This is an extremely important function of many social animals as it establishes status and maintains order. It can be disrupted by introducing new individuals or taking existing ones away, or by births, deaths, sexual maturity or waning health. Generally speaking, the higher you are in status, the more opportunities you have (for food and reproduction) but the more stress you have and the shorter your life may be.

Point-of-lay and pullet:

Point-of-lay: a young hen who is sexually mature and just about to lay her first egg.
Pullet: a young hen in her first egg laying season.

Spurs:

Leg daggers on roosters. With the beak and the claws these are very effective weapons.

New Zealand Native flora and fauna:

Pohutukawa: a big sprawling tree that has red flowers at Christmas time.
Pukeko: a small turkey sized bird with a big blue body, long red legs and an primitive looking red beak.
Tui: a magpie-sized bird with glossy black feathers shot with green and a tuft of white feathers at its throat. It sings a very distinctive and interesting song with its two voice boxes.
Weta: a massive, scary looking ground cricket with a nasty kick and bite.

New Zealand non Native flora and fauna:

Box-thorn: an impenetrable scrub of small leaves and BIG thorns from South Africa.
Harrier hawk: a large bird of prey from Australia.
Slaters: woodlice from Europe.

New Zealand chicken predators:

Of eggs: rats, hedgehogs, possums.
Of chicks and young birds: cats, hawks.
Of eggs, chicks and any sized bird: stoats, ferrets, dogs.