[andy46]

Please can someone help stop a debate i am having here goes  when does a pullet become a chicken and a chicken become a hen ?. Or am i getting all confused about it and they are all names for the same thing  please help its doing my head in.. Andy

[Debbieta]

Here I'm sat with a g&t, so not sure this will make sense, but here's my guess :happy:
Chicken is the overall name for the 'bird' regardless of age or sex.
Hen - female of egg laying age
Pullet - adolescent (teenage)
How's that for a guess.
Look forward to the definitive answer - cheers!

[joyfull]

A chick is when they are small, then they become a pullet when they start to lay and then they become a hen when they reach 1 year old or at least that is how I see it.
Chickens is the overall name for them all 

[ANHBUC]

Wiki answers give the following definitions.

A pullet is a young chicken, more specifically a hen (female) at least 20-weeks-old which has begun to lay eggs but has not yet moulted.

Chicken - The common domestic fowl (Gallus domesticus) or its young.

Hen - A female bird, especially the adult female of the domestic fowl.

[andy46]

Thanks guys problem solved  andy

[YoungChickenLover]

Pullet - adolescent (teenage)

In that case, I'm practically a pullet (my birthday is on the 2nd of December!!)!!!

[ANHBUC]

Pullet - adolescent (teenage)

In that case, I'm practically a pullet (my birthday is on the 2nd of December!!)!!!

Put your Birthday on The Happy Birthday Slot in Chatting on the Plot so we can all wish you a Happy Birthday.  

[Lindeggs]

Pullet:  A young female bird (a male of the same age is a cockerel)

Hen: An adult female bird (a male of the same age is a rooster or cock)

The word "chicken" seems to be undergoing a change.  Only a generation or two ago a "chicken" was the same as a "chick" i.e. a baby bird.  That's why we have the Hen and Chicken Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen_and_Chicken_Islands) i.e. one large island (the hen) and five small islands (the chickens).

These days "chicken" is becoming the generic term for the common domestic fowl gallus gallus domesticus.

I have a theory that this change is happening (at least in part) because of modern meat-bird rearing systems.  Modern meat birds grow so fast that they are ready to eat when they are only a few weeks old.  Therefore the plucked "chicken" that you buy at the supermarket is a chicken in both senses of the word - the old and the new sense. 

Of course the word "chicken" is also changing because there was a gap in the language.  I'm going to say I have a flock of chickens in my garden, not a flock of gallus.  Gallus is the Latin name.  We need a good old-fashioned homely English name to describe a down-to-earth domestic animal, and "chicken" fits the bill nicely.