Terminology

A male chicken is called a ****, Cockeral (neutered male), or Rooster. The female chicken is a hen. Baby chickens are called chicks. Immature females (not yet laying) are refered to as poults or pullets. A bantam is a species of chicken bred to be small (roughly half the size of a normal chicken).

When a hen stops laying and tries to hatch a clutch of eggs, that is call brooding or "going broody." Moulting is the time period (annually in adults) when chickens shed their feathers and grow a new set. Candling is the process of using light to see inside of the egg to gague chick development or defect.

History

Chickens are descended from the Jungle Fowl, a predominately land based running bird. First bred in Asia, the chicken had spread to Europe by the time of the Romans. It has been a consistant mainstay of humanity since the Middle Ages and is one of the most commonly consumed meats in the world.

Benefits

The chicken provides two primary benefits: meat and eggs.

Eggs are considered dairy becaused they are produced (almost) daily by the hen when she is not moulting or broody. A chicken egg is aproximately 70 calories (45 fat), contains 6g of protein, and is a decent source of vitimin A, D, and B vitimins (5-10% of suggested daily values).

Chicken meat is lean and high in protein and has enough fat to avoid protein posioning even if used as a sole staple (not suggested).

Chickens also have several other side benefits. Their waste is a powerful fertilizer (it is "hot," so it should not be directly applied to plants or their roots). They provide a good deal of pest control, though they should not be give continual access to a garden, as once they are done with the bugs they will turn on the plants. They can be used to weed and till an area, if mobbed upon it (penned in a small area until bare). They are also very good at "up-cycling" waste into food - food scraps, bugs, weeds, garden waste, guts from cleaned animals, and many other things that would be unappetizing to the human palate.

Cooping

Chickens need continual access to clean water and this is easily achieved with commercial waterers. In places with long cold spells steps will need to be taken to keep liquid water available (a solar box will help in colder climates).

Chickens can be allowed to free range during the day, so long as they have secure places to run and hide from hawks and dogs. Free ranging will result in occasional losses to predation, but will also minimize the need for feeding (based on the quality of the pasture they range). They also do well in covered runs, but unless these are portable, they will soon be barren an no longer will provide the chicken with forage. Chickens must be kept in a secure shelter at night, as they are completely helpless when asleep.

A chickens diet consist of bug/meat > seeds > greens. For most modern laying breeds, supplimental feed (millet, corn, or other grain) and supplimental calcium (oyster shell, powdered eggshell, powdered bone, or high calcium greens like collards) will be needed to maintain mass and bone density. A good grinder will allow you to turn roadkill with bone and feedcorn (stalk, cob, and all) into a cheap, balanced chicken diet. Avoid feeding chickens seafood or high sulfur feeds, as the flavor will carry through to the eggs.

Butchering

The easiest way to catch a chicken to butcher is to get up before they do. While they are asleep they are completely placid. Hold or hang them by their feet and they will go into a trance like state and hang still. You can then either slit the throat or sever the head. One or two wingbeats later they will go still, but I suggest giving them a few minutes to drain.

You can either pluck or peel a chicken. Plucking is more work, but you retain more meat. To pluck a chicken, dip it in scalding, but sub-boiling, water for a few seconds. When the feathers come out easily by the handful, you have it right. The final pin feathers can be singed off over a candle or fire. The guts can then be removed. A careful vent cut is used today for a more attractive bird, but for your own use you can split it neck to vent if you want.

Peeling involves skinning the bird like any game animal. The feathers are removed with the skin and the meat is cut away from the carcass (breasts, legs and thighs, and wings). The backmeat is discarded with the innards. This method is much quicker, easiers, and cleaner, even if it does waste meat.

Cooking

A yard bird is going to be much leaner than a hybrid commercial chicken fed a corn heavy diet with no exercise. Slow cooking in a dutch oven with veggies until tender will give two family meals. One of chicken and veggies laddled out (good on a bed of rice) and a second of soup or dumplings with broth.

Chickens: The Next Generation

If you want future chicks, the easy way is to put eggs under a broody female. She will take care of the rest.

Many contemporary breeds, however, have broodiness bred out of them (for greater egg production). In which case you can either wait and hope, or you can incubate them artificially. There are kerosine and wood pellet incubators. Follow the instructions that come with the incubator for temperature and humidity control. The eggs will need to be rotated three OR five times a day.

Since you want the eggs at 99 degrees, you will need a thermometer to maintain the correct temperature. A plastic shoebox with a few small holes in the lid with sawdust floating in a sweater box of water works well if you keep hot water over the fire and maintain temperature by adding hot water to the sweater box every quarter hour as needed (this would require shifts, plenty of fuel, and some old people with nothing better to do).