All those lovely words and phrases from our friend the chicken

I have several chickens and these are all the interesting phrases that have originated with chickens.

I have these in alphabetical order... and I don't know why I'm telling you that.

Broody (or brooding) : A hen becomes broody when she decides it's time to hatch her eggs. She sits on her eggs to warm and incubate them. While she is brooding, she is generally irritable and cranky, will growl and puff-up.

Chicken (as in "you're so chicken") : Chickens aren't known for their brains or bravery.

Cock(like to "cock" one's head) : Roosters (called "cocks") frequently cock their heads to size up you (or anyone/anything that takes their fancy).

Cock-eyed: See above, cocks tilt their heads and roll their eyes up to see if they can take you on.

Cock : I'm pretty sure this came from the root word "cock", because if anybody's cocky it's my roosters.

Coming Home to Roost: Chickens always roost in the same place, at night my chickens will always go into the coop to sleep (or a tree, if they're being naughty).

All cooped up: I'm not sure if this comes from "chicken coops" (that's the house a chicken lives in, and is sometimes crowded in), but it seems a bit of a coincidence otherwise.

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched : Sometimes not all the eggs will hatch, so if you count before they're hatched you'll get a wrong number. Pretty self-explanitory.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket: Also pretty self-explanitory.

Hackles (as in "to get one's hackles up") : The feathers around a chicken's neck is called it's "hackles", when a chicken is broody, feels threatened, is about to fight, etc., its hackles puff all up to make it appear larger (and quite possibly to just make it feel tougher). This is common to most animals, not just chickens.

Hen-pecked (A hen-pecked husband) : A group of hens will sometimes actually peck, pluck the feathers, and generally harass the rooster, thus he has been "hen-pecked". Not that the rooster is not guilty. Not by a long shot.

Pecking Order: The hierarchy of a flock of chickens. When chickens are still pretty young, or when new chickens are introduced, the chickens will fight to see who is over who. Interestingly enough, the head chicken has responsibities and privilages. He (or she if there is no rooster) has to fend of enemies/warn of attackers, and as a reward he gets first choice of food, etc.

Rule the Roost : Um, my mom suggested this one. Read above. The head of the "pecking order" is the ruler of the roost.

Spring Chicken: Spring chickens are young and tender... and tasty if you've got meat chickens.

And that's all I can think of for now.