Chickens

[pgavey]

Just wondering why are ruffed, and sharp tail called chicken? by some folks
Any ides where this got it's start?

[Parker Hale]

Growing up in BC we called grouse Prairie Chickens, I do not know how this term was coined though. Interesting question, I hope we see an answer.

[Grizzly Adams]

Pioneer version of Chickens. Rivers , mountains and cities named after them . Chicken airport is a little clucky, it would seem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken,_Alaska

Grizz

[bat119]

I think back in the old days the settlers didn't know bird names, a bird in the pot was a "chicken" doves, grouse or a pigeon it really didn't matter.

[1899b]

From the same old timers (my fathers and grandfathers generation) that always called walleye pickerel.....

[Bigwoodsman]

Originally Posted by bat119

I think back in the old days the settlers didn't know bird names, a bird in the pot was a "chicken" doves, grouse or a pigeon it really didn't matter.

Originally Posted by 1899b

From the same old timers (my fathers and grandfathers generation) that always called walleye pickerel.....

Shhhhhhhh

If this were to get out our leader in Ottawa will have to apologize to all the birds and fishes!


BW

[saddleup]

Originally Posted by Bigwoodsman

Shhhhhhhh

If this were to get out our leader in Ottawa will have to apologize to all the birds and fishes!


BW

Ya you are right about the possible apology, but the end payment would be "CHICKEN FEED'.....

[Puma]

Slang term
I would say its because of the size and behavior of the bird. Much like a domestic chicken.

Puma

[Johnny Huntnfish]

Here is what Ive deduced:

People from BC call grouse chickens

Some people from AB call partridge chickens

People from Ontario call walleye pickerel

People from Nova Scotia call Pike pickerel

Walleye (pickerel) from Sask/Manitoba tastes worse than walleye (pickerel) from Ontario and Alberta - my dad thinks its some kind of sub-species but I think that we actually get cuts from smaller fish in AB and Ont and that may have a better flavour than the filets we get from the monsters in Sask and MTB

[owlhoot]

In Ontario we always called Ruffed Grouse Partridge.
I know some old timers in Alberta that called Sharpies Prairee Chickens or just Chickens.

[happy honker]

Growing up dad would always say "we're going chicken hunting tomorrow".
Partridge was used also, no one around ever said grouse at all.
They walk a bit like chickens, the head movement. Also, the meat is white.
I think I heard "roughies" quite a bit too.

Just slang terminology.

I remember mom saying "we're having wild chickens for supper".

We all knew they weren't "chickens", but we all knew what was being referred to.

I think today I still use it sometime.

Here is some context:

Hunting partner during deer hunting:
"how was the walk? see any fresh tracks"?

Me:
"No, but a chicken scared the ^%$@# out of me down by the corner"!!

[Red Bullets]

During homesteading grouse were called chicken because that was part of their name proper. The pinniated grouse's common name was the greater prairie 'chicken'.

Back in the day the greater prairie chicken was here in droves. Ruffed grouse weren't hunted as much as the prairie chicken because the greater prairie chicken was a 2 or 3 times the size of a ruffed grouse and much easier to hunt. There were more prairie chicken and sharptail grouse than ruffed grouse prior to 1950.

I remember my dad telling me how a flock of a hundred or more prairie chicken would roost in one big tree and he could snare or shoot his legal limit starting with the lowest branches of birds, so as not to disturb the birds sitting higher up. The whole hunt took a few minutes. The flocks felt safe when roosted and wouldn't fly and that was their demise.

Loss of habitat to the sodbusters plus hunting exterminated the greater prairie "chicken" by the 1950's in Alberta.

[Salavee]

I can remember the Sharptails flying out of the nearby bush to the adjacent fields in literal droves. Flock after flock of fifty or more birds . We hid behind a
stook and shot a limit in no time. The best pass shooting imaginable.

[The_Gun_Boy]

I read in a book that in the southern US they used to call ruffled grouse native pheasants or just pheasants.

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

During homesteading grouse were called chicken because that was part of their name proper. The pinniated grouse's common name was the greater prairie 'chicken'.

Back in the day the greater prairie chicken was here in droves. Ruffed grouse weren't hunted as much as the prairie chicken because the greater prairie chicken was a 2 or 3 times the size of a ruffed grouse and much easier to hunt. There were more prairie chicken and sharptail grouse than ruffed grouse prior to 1950.

I remember my dad telling me how a flock of a hundred or more prairie chicken would roost in one big tree and he could snare or shoot his legal limit starting with the lowest branches of birds, so as not to disturb the birds sitting higher up. The whole hunt took a few minutes. The flocks felt safe when roosted and wouldn't fly and that was their demise.

Loss of habitat to the sodbusters plus hunting exterminated the greater prairie "chicken" by the 1950's in Alberta.

Spruce hens/grouse we're supposed to be similar to the prairie chickens for ease of capture.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by Okotok

Spruce hens/grouse we're supposed to be similar to the prairie chickens for ease of capture.

Ruffed grouse are the same. Once they are roosted they think they are safe.

[blgoodbrand1]

I call em all chickens. Probably cuz they taste like chicken. Glad I got my chicken draw this year, looks to be a bumper crop.


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