Simple Guide to Poultry Terms

  • Aviagen employee with flock of white chickens Animal Welfare: The interaction between a bird and its environment. This encompasses the well-being of the bird, their physical, physiological, and emotional health.
  • Balanced Breeding: A holistic approach to breeding that advances health, welfare, sustainability and productivity traits together in a positive and balanced way. 
  • Biosecurity: Management practices and strict hygiene protocols designed to protect flock health and help prevent potential disease and infection.
  • Bird Handling: Careful, gentle, and purposeful handling of chickens to support bird welfare, comfort, and safe daily care and management. 
  • Breeder Cockerel: A young male chicken raised with care specifically for reproduction in a breeding flock.
  • Breeder Flock: A group of male and female chickens carefully raised to produce fertile eggs that hatch into healthy chicks.  
  • Breeder Hen: A mature female chicken in a breeding flock, carefully managed to produce fertile eggs for offspring.
  • Breeder Pullet: A young female chicken (under 20 weeks of age) being raised to become part of a breeding flock.
  • Breeding Program: A scientific and systematic approach to selecting chickens with desired traits, such as efficiency, health, growth, and behavior to improve future generations.
  • Breeding Rooster: A mature male chicken in the breeder flock, used to fertilize eggs to produce healthy offspring.
  • Broiler Chickens/Flock: Chickens that hatch from Parent Stock (PS) eggs. This is the largest group of chickens, grown for meat production.
  • Enrichment: Physical modifications to the bird’s environment to promote natural behaviors.
  • Fertile Egg: An egg that has been successfully fertilized and can develop into a chick.
  • Flock Health Monitoring: Routine observation and management of chickens’ health, behavior, and environment to support good flock health and help prevent illness and stress.
  • Genetic Selection: Evaluating chickens in the pedigree population using performance data and other measurements to identify individuals with the most desirable traits—such as good health, welfare and productivity—and selecting them so their offspring are healthier and more efficient.
  • Grandparent (GP) Chickens: A flock of chickens hatched from the Great-grandparent breeding flock to produce eggs that hatch into Parent Stock (PS) chickens.  
  • Great-Grandparent (GGP) Chickens: A flock of chickens bred from pedigree offspring. These birds produce the eggs that hatch into Grandparent (GP) chickens.
  • Hatchability: The percentage of eggs that successfully hatch into healthy chicks.
  • Litter: Wood shavings or other material used on the floor of a house or barn where chickens are raised.
  • Natural Behaviors: Activities such as dust-bathing, foraging, perching, and interaction between birds that indicate healthy chickens and are indicators of good welfare.
  • Parent Stock (PS) Chickens: Chickens hatched from Grandparent (GP) chickens to produce fertile eggs for commercial broiler flocks.
  • Pedigree Chickens/Pedigree Flock: At the top of the breeding pyramid are pedigree chickens (pure breed). This small, carefully managed group of birds is the highest genetic level where improvements are made and passed down through the generations to the broiler. They are used to produce the next generation of breeders called Great-Grandparent (GGP) chickens.
  • Pure Breed: Animals bred only within the same breed or genetic line, without crossing with other breeds or lines.
  • Reproductive Performance: Metrics describing fertility, hatchability, and chick quality in the breeder flock.
  • Stockmanship: Skilled care and management of poultry by trained personnel to maintain good health, animal welfare, and production efficiency.
  • Well-being: Overall state of a chicken’s health and comfort.