Carey

Welcome poultry enthusiast to another exciting episode of the Poultry Nerds Podcast.

Jennifer

Whether you're raising backyard chickens, diving deep into the science of avian health, or just obsessed with all thing feathers and eggs, your in the right place.

Carey

I'm Carey.

Jennifer

I'm Jennifer. We're your hosts. Your

Carey

hosts,

Jennifer

and today. Today, go for it.

Carey

We've got an episode packed with everything you need to know to define all the terms, what the, what is it called?

Jennifer

From expert tips to fascinating facts. We're here to help you become the ultimate poultry pro. It's time to get nerdy about poultry. Okay, so just for context, we have been sitting here talking for 15 minutes and forgot to hit record, so that is why we're laughing and a little out of sync.

Carey

That's alright.

Jennifer

So it occurred to a me the other night that a lot of people don't know what some of these common terms. Are what we're talking about. So we thought we'd explain them all.

Carey

And that is the thing because especially when you're in some of the poultry groups, people and like they're in the south, we just say, bless her heart.

Jennifer

So terminology is super important. Yeah. 'cause you can't say you have a hen in a brooder. That's not the right terminology. So if you're asking for, yeah, because

Carey

then you would be like roasting a chicken

Jennifer

or

Carey

poaching eggs or what, whatever.

Jennifer

So when you need help or you're filling out show forms or. Talking to a breeder, using the right terminology is important. So you don't tell somebody that you're doing something and you're using the wrong words. Did I say that right?

Carey

Yeah, because it like people do it. So yeah. Today we figured we'll explain. What is meant when someone says a chick? We're not talking about the girl in the bikini at the beach. That is actually, we're talking about what actually should be in the brooder, the we, the weed little chick, the young. Let's see. I would consider anything up to what, four weeks, five weeks, at least as a chick. Yeah.

Jennifer

Accessable.

Carey

Yeah. Before their sex. You can, until you can figure out what they are, and that would be breed specific because some of them it would be closer to maybe six or eight weeks. cause like on a Pharaoh quail, you would consider that a chick for like week three. But an orpington, I don't know how long would you consider that a check?

Jennifer

Probably six to eight weeks.

Carey

Yeah,

Jennifer

but there's no, you could still call 'em, even if they were sensible, you could still call 'em a pull or a cockrell.

Carey

Yeah, because that covers anything under a year old is what I've always, if it's under a year old, then it's safe to call it a pull or a cockrell or whatever.

Jennifer

All right, you're getting ahead on our outline. So chick would be chicken or quail.

Carey

Yep. That it, babies. That's

Jennifer

it. Right?

Carey

That's them babies. And a

Jennifer

duckling. Duckling. That's pretty obvious. That's a duck. A pul is for a Turkey, a baby Turkey. It's not a check. It's a polt. P-O-U-L-T. And then gosling. That's a goose.

Carey

Yeah.

Jennifer

And here's the biggest pet peeve for me. Birds are hatched. They're not born. They're hatched.

Carey

Okay? Yeah,

Jennifer

Yeah. Okay. Now

Carey

that's when you see a lot too.

Jennifer

You do a lot

Carey

and I'm just like, I love you, but they're hatched.

Jennifer

Okay, so now we're on to the pull ro conversation. So a pull would be a young female.

Carey

Yep.

Jennifer

And we're talking about chickens. Quail. Yeah, maybe quail. And that's it. So like to me,

Carey

I don't think a quail really hits the pull stage. 'cause them suckers, they go from. Like checks to lay in eggs. Maybe a Bob White are one of the ones that take longer to mature, but yeah.

Jennifer

So just a female.

Carey

Yeah, that would just be a hand. 'cause yeah, they're quick.

Jennifer

Yeah. Okay. So if you're filling out a show card, a pull, it would be one that's under a year old.

Carey

Yep.

Jennifer

And if you are just talking slang out in the yard, a pull, it would be one that hasn't laid eggs yet,

Carey

which, when you say hasn't laid eggs yet, a lot of times by the time they're six to eight months old, they've laid an egg. But there's still a pull, not a hand, because they're not over a year old. So it's like, what do you, I don't know that can be confusing. That's why

Jennifer

I said backyard. That's why I said backyard.

Carey

Yep, backyard.

Jennifer

Okay. So a cock role would be a young male,

Carey

right?

Jennifer

And if you're doing a show card, it's denoted by the letter K, and it's one that's under a year old,

Carey

right?

Jennifer

A cock is a rooster. Over a year old male, whatever you wanna call. Totally mature. Chicken. Chicken quail. Ready to go? Yep.

Carey

Looking for love in all the places.

Jennifer

Hen that's gonna be a female over a year and that is gonna include your chicken, your quail, your Turkey, your duck.

Carey

That's, yeah. And see that's one of the things that's confusing to me, and I can understand how people can be confused. 'cause it's okay, you've got a hen and you've got a duck. But the males are called Drakes, not roosters. I can understand why with ducks and geese, people could get confused because the terminology is not as common.

Jennifer

So that's why we're here. I forgot to add to the list is Jake and Tom.

Carey

Oh yeah.

Jennifer

Jake is, yeah. Jake is a young Turkey male. And a Tom is a mature Yep. Turkey. So Drake would be a duck male.

Carey

And a

Jennifer

gander would be a male goose, right?

Carey

Yeah.

Jennifer

Alright, next category. That's,

Carey

you hear the word gander in some old nursery rhymes too.

Jennifer

Alright, my next category on my little list we've got going here. Okay, so sexed birds are the opposite of straight run. So straight run, which should be, they're just mixed up.

Carey

That should be a thing. But I see so many people complaining, oh, I ordered straight run birds, and I got all roosters except for two. I'm like, that's straight run. Unfortunately, that is what in a lot of situations, how the luck usually works and what comes out of. The hatcher seems especially when you need a lot of hens, you're gonna get a lot of roosters. That's one of the reasons why autos sex is a thing. And sex link.

Jennifer

So sex birds would be just that we can tell male from female. You can vent sex. Quail vent sexing, they have to be sexually mature. If you're trying to do chicken chicks or ducks or turkeys, in all likelihood, you cannot. Those are trained professionals that meant sex at the hatcheries. So you can damage a bird. Please don't try, just let it be gender reveal in six to eight weeks.

Carey

Yeah, that, because that. I've watched a lot of YouTube videos to try to figure that out and once you see it, but it's like a very fine line as to how much you squeeze the bird being too much. And if those insides pop out, you now have a call. Even if you didn't want it, just leave them alone. Yeah, leave them alone. Let it be the surprise. Like a box of chocolates.

Jennifer

Sex linked. That just means that the genetic manipulated, usually color genetics are manipulated in such a way that they're sex able at Hatch. And we did a podcast about that. Probably. March of 25, I would say maybe February 25. We did a podcast about that. It was March.

Carey

March the 13th was Hannah Rooster. How To Tell The Difference.

Jennifer

Yeah, but we did one with Gina, sex Linked and Auto. Oh

Carey

yeah, sex Linked with Gina. That was, yeah, that was February the 20th.

Jennifer

Yep. Okay, so next up on my categories here we have litter. Litter is like used bedding essentially at the bottom of the coop, right?

Carey

That's not what a cat has. We're talking about farm animals.

Jennifer

Farm animals. I guess it could be fresh litter. Bedding is more like you bedded the nest boxes or you bedded the brooders or

Carey

what kind of bedding do you use? Do you use straw or what do you put in your I use

Jennifer

dirt. I dirt in your boxes. What a concept.

Carey

Look, some people try to overthink their nest boxes and get extremely fancy with 'em, and what I have found for a lot of birds, regardless of the size, that a 12 to 14 inch opening sitting on the ground, much like the size of a milk crate. With something soft in the bottom, they will lay eggs, whether it is a game bird, a large foul, or a Turkey.

Jennifer

My Turkey lay all over the place. I have to go Easter egg hunting in the runs.

Carey

So in the coop that I have mine in, they all, I've got four hens in there. They're all very particular to one corner and I just put a milk crate right there with some pea moss and people are like, that's too big for a Turkey. Or not big enough for a Turkey. But Frank Reese said himself, he uses 12 inch by 12 inch box with an open top sitting on the ground. And that's what all of his lay in.

Jennifer

So I have tried everything. I've had turkeys for years and I have tried everything and mine just want to lay on the ground. They're like my ducks. So when I'm driving across the field in the Gator, we play hit the duck egg because they're literally just everywhere and you don't know how old they are. And that's why I have to pin my ducks up this time of year. To get the eggs. So you

Carey

had some

Jennifer

Yes, I had some because the ones you the, when the grandkids come over and they're like, bring me these duck ache. I'm like, where'd you get that? Was it in the pen or out of the pen? It was out of the pen. Grandma. Okay. Be very careful with it. It could, could've been there since last,

Carey

when you throw that, be very careful. Because that is like Easter egg hunting nightmares all over again.

Jennifer

They near over the weekend and I'm throwing them in the pond.

Carey

Yeah, because how many times, and this happened to me as a kid, we have Easter bowl, eggs, all that good stuff. I was cutting grass, so picture that like a month or so later, I. And I found an egg that was rough, really rough. Like I stopped right where I was. I was struggling. It was tough. So try to get your birds to lay in some area. Yeah.

Jennifer

Yep. Yeah.

Carey

Grit. Grit. That's a term, huh? Roost. Oh yeah. Roost. Roost a roost. I use two by fours. That's anything from a really big tree limb to a two by four or a two by six, depending on how big the birds are. Turkey's two by sixes. Like in one of my pens, I thought I was gonna be creative and be like, do something really cool to make it. Like the reel. So I got some small trees that I cut down and I was using those for roofs and now I make saw horses. Yep. Different sizes. I've got some saw horses that are foot tall. I have some that are foot and a half and I have one set that's six feet tall 'cause game birds. Would fly 30 feet up in the air if you had their thing tall enough, they would love it. But like for my turkeys, I built a two of them put in there that were like three feet wide and they're two feet tall. And it's great because at night. When I need to go in there and check on 'em and give them a good feel down the Q bone and down their backbone and see how things are going. Getting time for breeding season and thinking in the back of my mind, which one's gonna be Thanksgiving? When they're two feet off the ground, you just go in there and, 'cause they're like at night. So

Jennifer

they are, they worked. They are. Yeah, you never wanna put a Turkey roost over your head because if you go in there and have to get 'em, you,

Carey

you're not going to.

Jennifer

Mine are four feet off the ground. Yeah. So I used the two before. I also used two by eights for the turkeys. And my highest roost is the Turkey and it is four feet. Everybody else is two feet off the ground. Yeah, you

Carey

don't want 'em to hurt yourself. Getting off.

Jennifer

Yep. All right. Now you can talk about grits. You're like your favorite subject.

Carey

So grit. That is rocks. Lot of people want to say oyster shell is grit because it's kind of, it's hard, but it breaks grits, rock.

Jennifer

It is most now. Now, somebody did text me not too long ago and ask me the difference between oyster shell and granite grit, and I just told them that oyster shell is gonna wear out faster.

Carey

Yeah. Because it's calcium and it dissolves. And granite, it will in a few thousand years.

Jennifer

Yeah. So if we pull up fossils of turkeys, they'll have granite in 'em.

Carey

Nah. 'cause back then they probably wasn't smart enough to give it to 'em to get their fee conversion ratio up by 20%. Uhhuh chicken wire. Chicken wire is a thing. That's that octagonal stuff that comes with those $200 coops that you buy off of Amazon. That is really great for keeping your chickens in, but it's not great for keeping anything out. Yeah. It's not great for keeping anything out.

Jennifer

Keeps contained,

Carey

So contained if

Jennifer

can get in,

Carey

yeah. If you live in suburbia and you have a fenced in backyard, then you're gonna be good with that. But if you live anywhere outside of that. You're setting up a buffet. Which comes to one of the other things that we have on here. Hardware, cloth. That's the stuff that's really, it's not really cloth. Really stiff. Yeah. No. That's the stuff that's really stiff. It is usually like 16, 18, 20 gauge thick. It is welded together. I would highly suggest wearing gloves when you handle it, because that crap will slice you with a quickness.

Jennifer

Yeah. You'll almost always get one up underneath your fingernail.

Carey

Yes. Right there for y'all that can see that. It like, I still have a black spot on my finger in the middle, that's a thing. Way better than the chicken wire, but still it's not predator proof, but it's like putting forth some effort.

Jennifer

And you can get it in different sizes. You can get quarter inch squares, half inch squares, three quarter inch squares.

Carey

I've even seen some half by one. Yeah. Half by one is really good if you're making a quail cage for the bottom, but I would definitely, I would not I can't think of a reason why you would use the quarter inch other than that's all you had access to. Or maybe if it was less expensive. No. In some of my pens, some of my breeding pens that I have are dog kennels that were converted and I have half by half this, 24 inches wide around the bottom. Because chickens are dumb. They'll stick their head out and

Jennifer

what's out here that will take my head off.

Carey

Chicken. The chicken wire. They can fit their head through that. They can't. The hardware cloth.

Jennifer

And then you can get hardware cloth coated or non coated. Yeah, just be aware that non coated will rust over time. Yep. It is not good for feet, so always get coated hardware, cloth if you're gonna put a bird on it, right? But for just like the walls or the top, uncoated is fine. Save your money. And then netting, oh, you lost some wet

Carey

netting. You love it,

Jennifer

So I have to tell you a story. You ready? Ready. And I wish I could. I found it and I haven't seen it in a while. So I bought the cheap stuff off of Z right? Back when I first built the runs and stuff, I bought the $20 pack and it would get you like a hundred feet of netting. Somebody had a lot, somebody had actually written. Somebody had written a review and I bought it just because of the review. It was so funny. But she said, first of all, don't do netting with your spouse and tie one corner to the mirror of the car and another corner to the neighbor's fence and another corner to your house. And then it is still gonna be the shape of a diamond and you'll never get it up. So just wad it up and throw it away. And don't ask your friends to help you either, 'cause they'll never come over again to help you. All. True statements. I would never let David help me with the netting and one of my kids actually put it up. Up and I went up there to check on him to see if he needed my help and he stopped and he looked at me. He, now he is like 30, and he looks at me and he goes, I need you to walk away. Do not turn around. Do not look at me again. I just need you to walk away and I will let you know when I'm done. We get it all up and one sparrow flies into it, this big gaping hole. So do you not buy the $20 stuff? Just save your $20.

Carey

I was gonna say, one of the things when I said something about building a large run out of the two by four wire, I don't think I'm skipping over anything. No. Like the two by four wire you said don't get the cheap stuff go straight to. What is that company?

Jennifer

It's rope knitting. Don't get the nylon.

Carey

Yeah. What is a company that sells that?

Jennifer

It's a couple of them. I got mine from Pennon, but there's, yeah, they're, but make sure but get the kind that's

Carey

like rope because the nylon stuff. Yeah. There, there might be divorces that have happened because of that.

Jennifer

Yes. So hire a complete stranger from the corner to come help you put it on.

Carey

Yeah, there you go. And pay 'em when you finish. 'cause that's tough, but it's very handy because it still lets the sun in which they need and, but it will also keep hawks out. Yeah.

Jennifer

What about, and it's very heavy.

Carey

What about feed? Feed to me should be self-explanatory. Start, there's a lot of

Jennifer

confusion over the wording. Kind

Carey

of a starter. Then you give 'em a grower to make 'em grow. You give 'em a layer when they start laying. But what's a conditioner feed for it? People

Jennifer

want ages. People want ages. They wanna know that. Do you give them layer feed at 16 weeks?

Carey

No.

Jennifer

No.

Carey

I will say that if you, a lot of times if you look at a feed tag, it should have a suggested age on it. There you go. Like layers 26 weeks and up

Jennifer

layers, layer feeds for layers.

Carey

I was gonna say you, if you give a chicken layer feed, it will not start laying. But when it starts laying, you probably should give it layer feed or like a developer feed with what we mentioned earlier, oyster shells.

Jennifer

Shells. Okay. We're gonna not go. We're gonna, I'm gonna let you digress for one minute because we need to dispel a myth. Can the males, the roosters, the Ros eat layer food?

Carey

I hope so, because mine do,

Jennifer

yes. So do mine. They haven't killed over yet.

Carey

It a lot of calcium? Yeah. Is it gonna kill 'em? No. The, because you're

Jennifer

only feeding it to 'em while they're laying the rest of the time they're going off the mills.

Carey

Yeah. On a developer or conditioner, not a starter because they're beyond starter. And if they're already mature, they're past the grower. Yeah, kick 'em with an off flock something go. Yeah, do it.

Jennifer

All right. What else we got here? Okay, next section of terminology, brooders.

Carey

That's where you put your hands.

Jennifer

No, that's where you put the chicks.

Carey

Yeah. Okay.

Jennifer

Or the ducklings or the pulse

Carey

Or the goslings. Or the goslings.

Jennifer

I just like saying it. I like that word too.

Carey

It's fun.

Jennifer

The grow up. What

Carey

about, yeah, so that's where your cock rolls and pulls go.

Jennifer

Sure. Still protected, still, a little bit confined, protected from the elements if you're brooding in the wintertime. But not necessarily on heat anymore.

Carey

Yeah, no. And the coop that's where they lay eggs, that's where they go to sleep. That's where they roost.

Jennifer

And everybody looks different. Do they act

Carey

in the run? They don't do that in the run, do they? They run around in the run.

Jennifer

Sometimes mine lay eggs in the run.

Carey

That is true. But

Jennifer

now runs are attached to the coops because you're not.

Carey

Yep.

Jennifer

Free ranging.

Carey

That's another thing. Free range. Free range is when there's no real fence. Now I get to me, technically I consider if you've got one of those net fencing thing around and you've got a bunch of chickens and you're moving from one section of pasture to another, that's still technically free ranging, but free ranging is when you're out there. Because that net not stopping a whole lot.

Jennifer

No. So you wanna hear a funny story? Yeah. So our last house did not have any fencing and so I told David we needed to fence and he didn't want to because we lived on a sheet of rock. And so we went out there and we stretched fence tree to tree and stapled it to the tree on the property line. And the entire time is fussing up a storm. I'm like, what is wrong with you? And and then we're talking, this was a two acre lot, so let's just say we're fencing an acre here. And I'm like, what is wrong with you? Why have we got such attitude about putting this fence up? And he goes, because we're, you want a fence, birds, creatures that have wings and can fly and you think putting up a four foot fence is gonna hold these birds in. The only thing that ever got out was stupid guineas, which we forgot. Those are called Keats, by the way. The babies are. But stupid Guineas would go over and then stand right up against the fence and scream bloody murder because they couldn't figure out how to get back.

Carey

At least they knew where they were supposed to come back to.

Jennifer

Guinea are like boat. You're gr they're great. The day you buy them and then they're great. The day you get rid of them,

Carey

The two best times involve a transaction. Yeah. I like, I have a really bad predator problem and I thought seriously about getting them just for that. But I can't I would probably wind up madder at them than the raccoons that I get.

Jennifer

So if I have another Guinea story, so a couple, three years ago I sold a ton of Keats, like as fast as I could, hatch 'em, selling them. And we have a lot of western state transplants here in Tennessee and they didn't. Like the ticks or the bugs in their yard. And they would go online to the fake book and they would be told they need guineas. And I know when somebody was pulling their leg, because they would come here and they would have five acres and they wanted 20 guineas, and they were adamant that they needed 20 guineas. So I would sell them 20. But then sometimes people would come and they'd be like how many do you really think I need? And I always say, I don't know. Maybe start with five or six and go from there. And a hundred percent of the time, the people who bought the 20 or 25 guineas from me would call me a few months later and go, Hey, do you need some of these back?

Carey

For biosecurity reasons, I do not take any birds back once they leave. They stay gone. I can connect you with a local resource that will help you butcher it.

Jennifer

The first rule of sales is if somebody is committed to what they want. You don't try to talk 'em outta this.

Carey

Nope. You don't.

Jennifer

Nope. You just let it go. Okay oh, aviary, we forgot Aviary. That's just, yeah, that's

Carey

like

Jennifer

a big open

Carey

area that they. Can fly in.

Jennifer

A lot of people keep their quail that way.

Carey

Yep. Brody, that is the useful purpose of a silky. That is when, I don't think that is when a hen. Wants to sit on her eggs and hatch them,

Jennifer

and you won't mistake her for just wanting to sit there. They somehow contort all the bones into their bodies to flat pancakes and cover all of the eggs, and they hiss and bark and bite at you if you try. Yep. Some of them bite pretty hard,

Carey

but the Broy hen is Nature's Incubator.

Jennifer

Yes. Yes. Okay. An incubator would be where you want to put your eggs without a broy hen in order to make him grow into chicks. Or keets. Or slings.

Carey

And where would you get those eggs? Hopefully

Jennifer

the nest box outta a

Carey

nest box.

Jennifer

A clean one.

Carey

Yes. One where

Jennifer

they haven't been sleeping in it.

Carey

So I have this game chicken hen, she's a hen and she will, I kept noticing like she would wait. On her particular box to open up. So I thought, Hey, that's a pretty good, she wants to make sure it goes in the box. So I started putting her in pens with my grow outs, and they would see her going in and lay their eggs and it worked because all the ones, the hens that were in that grow out, it's like they won't lay an egg unless they're inside the nest box. It's nice.

Jennifer

No more dirty eggs, huh? Alright. And then the cu LEAs to remove the bird from the coop, from the breeding program, from the brooder, from the earth, whatever you wanna call it. It doesn't necessarily

Carey

mean, a lot of people think, oh, if you're colon it, you're. Alive in it. But that doesn't mean that calling, it is removing it from your program period, regardless of whether it's the crockpot method, the person down the road that wants some chickens, method, whatever method you go with. Yes. All right. What's a comb thought you'd run through your hair.

Jennifer

Yeah, it's the big red thing on top of their heads. I've seen a lot of people try to describe it and didn't know what the term was. So the comb is on top of their heads. The waddles are on the bottom of their heads, underneath their,

Carey

so the comb is like their hair and the waddles is like their beard.

Jennifer

Exactly. The be is that Bill thing they

Carey

eat with.

Jennifer

And the Beal too. But that would be for Goslings.

Carey

Goslings.

Jennifer

Goslings and Ducks.

Carey

Yep. Pull eggs. That is a smaller egg from a hen that is young.

Jennifer

From a pull,

Carey

from a pull. But that you should not incubate.

Jennifer

They could be double yogurts too. They're just gonna be all over the usually. Okay. You're right. Pull it. Eggs we describe as the small ones, but pull, its can lay eggs that are all over the spectrum. Most size.

Carey

Yeah. If you got too much protein going to 'em, a lot of times they will lay bigger eggs.

Jennifer

Yeah. Alright. Plumage. Jink,

Carey

that's the hackle feathers and the sickle feathers.

Jennifer

Feather. And the tail feathers.

Carey

And the wing feathers. And

Jennifer

so the hackle feathers and the sickle feathers are what makes a rooster pretty.

Carey

Yes? This past weekend I was at a show in South Carolina and I saw this rooster whose hackle feathers literally looked like a sunburst. Like it was a really pretty bird. Yeah.

Jennifer

All right. The SOP was written by the a PA

Carey

kinda. We won't go down that road.

Jennifer

In conference with the clubs, did that, yeah. That explained everything, didn't it?

Carey

That would be the standard of perfection.

Jennifer

Yeah. The standard as according

Carey

to the American Net Poultry Association.

Jennifer

Or the American Bantam Association,

Carey

they have one. That's the A BA. American Banham Association,

Jennifer

and then you have breed clubs. Not all breeds have clubs, but the more popular ones do.

Carey

Yeah,

Jennifer

and they just are a group of people like the Orpington Club or the Coachings International. We have a list of, they love that bird. We have a list of the breed clubs on our website. Did you know that I put that there?

Carey

I saw.

Jennifer

Okay, cool.

Carey

The listener should check it out. Yeah. Make sure they become a part of their favorite breed club to help support it.

Jennifer

Yep. Now, the SOP is copyrighted by the A PA. You cannot get that. Description anywhere but buying the book from the a PA on their website.

Carey

Yep. You take a picture of it and post it and they will send you an nastygram.

Jennifer

So

Carey

don't do it. And it's a protected thing, so I get it, but don't do it. Alright. And I did hear that they are going through the final stages. Releasing a new version that's had been corrected.

Jennifer

And did you know the first 33 pages involved in the, included in the first 33 pages is a dictionary with a whole lot more terms in it.

Carey

There's a lot of 'em in there.

Jennifer

There is pages and pages of them.

Carey

Yep.

Jennifer

So these are just the highlights that we come across every day. People asking me on the website or whatnot, and we thought we would just

Carey

see if we could clear that up.

Jennifer

There you go. And it help y'all out. I hope it was fun for everybody else. It was fun for us.

Carey

Yep. I enjoyed it.

Jennifer

All right, so we'll talk

Carey

to y'all later.

Jennifer

Bye.