Gail Damerow - The Chicken Encyclopedia: An Illustrated Reference

THE CHICKEN ENCYCLOPEDIA

AN ILLUSTRATED REFERENCE

GAIL DAMEROW

author of Storeys Guide to Raising Chickens

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Deborah Burns

Art direction and book design by Alethea Morrison

Text production by Sourena Parham

Cover and interior illustrations by Bethany Caskey, except as noted on page 319

Interior photography credits appear on page 319

Indexed by Samantha Miller

2012 by Gail Damerow

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Damerow, Gail.

The chicken encyclopedia / by Gail Damerow.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-60342-561-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. ChickensEncyclopedias. I. Title.

SF481.3.D36 2012

636.503dc23

2011026852

MY THANKS GO TO

Rebekah L. Boyd-Owens, editor of my earlier book Storeys Guide to Raising Chickens, third edition, for persistent and incisive questions that inspired this volume; Gene Morton, ornithologist and poultry enthusiast, for invaluable technical advice; Paul Kroll, APA and ABA judge, for help with fine-tuning some of the trickier definitions (although any misinterpretations remain entirely my own); Elaine Belanger, editor of Backyard Poultry magazine, for ongoing suggestions and encouragement; Allan Damerow, my husband and best pal, for research assistance and for indulging me in my passion for chickens.

abdomen \ The belly, or the underside of a chickens body from the end of the breastbone to the vent. Technically, because a chicken has no diaphragm separating its chest from its abdomen, its body cavity is more properly called the coelom. See page 19 for illustration.

abdominal capacity \ Total depth and width of the abdomen.

abdominal depth \ The distance between the pubic bones and the breastbone, indicating a hens ability to hold a forming egg.

abdominal depth

abdominal width \ The distance between the two pubic bones, indicating the amount of space available for an egg to pass through when being laid. [Also called: width of body]

abdominal width

acariasis \ Infestation by mites.

addled \ Describes a rotten or otherwise inedible egg, typically one in which the embryo died during early incubation, such as when an egg was partially incubated, then abandoned.

aflatoxicosis \ A toxic reaction resulting from eating moldy grain containing aflatoxin, a compound produced by