Well, at the shows, you enter birds are only the following, K,P, C and H.
K is cockerel, P is pullet, C is cock and H is hen.
In everyday speech, many, many older timers simply say cockbird. It's not really correct either, but most commonly used in speech. The trouble with calling a bird the wrong thing is the AGE of the bird is paramount. Using pullet when referring to a young, under year old female tells us she's under a year old and so forth.
Since i'm just a an old farm boy, I grew up with barrows and gilts, boars and sows, so none of this is new to me. As well as heifer and bullcalf, steer, bull or cow. The horse people all say filly or colt to refer to the young and stalion, gelding or mare to refer to the older horses. Even aspect of animal husbandry and animal fancy has such terms and we just submit to the wisdom of the ages in using the proper terms in context.
Say the marsupial word around any true chicken man and he'll think you're a dufus and a half, that's for sure. You'd never be taken seriously, I know I just pretty much ignore folks who write or call and ask if I have "baby hens" cause they can't have "roos" where they live." I just don't feel any real need to write back and resppond, to be honest. Life's too short and the birds are too valuable. It's the way it is.
If in doubt? Shoot, just say male or female. Works just fine.
Alright, I got a zillion plants to set and ten times that many weeds to hoe, so back to work.
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