Teenagers

     Our once-peeps are now nine weeks old – peeps no more.  They are teenagers.  I wondered what we should be calling them now.  Although they still “cheep cheep” like babies, they definitely don’t fit the fluffy little balls we think of when we speak of “chicks.”  This is what I learned about chicken terminology on Wikipedia:
     In the UK and Ireland adult male chickens are primarily known as cocks, whereas in America, Canada, and Australia they are better known as roosters. Males under a year old are cockerels.  Castrated roosters are called capons (though both surgical and chemical castration are now illegal in some parts of the world). Females over a year old are known as hens, and younger females are pullets.  In Australia and New Zealand (also sometimes in Britain), there is a generic term chook (rhymes with book) to describe all ages and both sexes.  Babies are called chicks, and the meat is called chicken.
     So there you have it.  Since we don’t yet know whether these two youngsters are male or female, we cannot rightly call them cockerels or pullets, and I’m not sure many people would know what we’re talking about it we were to call them chooks.  So we’re sticking to teenagers.
     Besides, they act a lot like other teenagers we have known.  For instance, on the days that we let the entire flock out of their quarters for the day, only the five grown-up hens come back to the coop when they are called.  The teenagers keep out of sight, staying out until nearly dark, and sneaking inside well after curfew.  They are careful never to look you in the eye.
     Furthermore, they look like teenagers.  Their legs are long, their feet are too big and, as they are still without their combs, they look like they have goofy haircuts.  They don’t like to hang out with the adult hens and the hens don’t much like to have them around either.  It seems to suit everyone that they do their own ‘teenage thing’ without too much adult supervision.
     We are waiting for their voices to change so we can tell if they are roosters or hens.  We are hoping to hear “cluck cluck” and not “cock-a-doodle-do.”  And we are also hoping, probably hopelessly, that as soon as that happens they will start behaving in a more adult fashion.  Judging from other teens we have known, though, that final transformation will probably take awhile.