Reference

Chicken Anatomy: Labeled Hen Diagram, Comb Types and Example Breeds

Field guide · Updated October 30, 2026 · about 9 min read

Extension guides, breed standards and health checklists all use the same names for the outside of a chicken: comb, wattles, hackle, keel, vent, shank. This page puts those parts on one labeled drawing of a hen, explains what each one tells a backyard keeper, and sorts the comb shapes you will meet into a table with example breeds.

Labeled diagram of a hen

The drawing follows the part names in Jacquie Jacob's "External Anatomy of Chickens" (Poultry Extension), Washington State University's 4-H poultry leader guide and the University of Kentucky glossary. It shows a generic single-combed hen, not a specific breed.

What each part tells you

Comb types and example breeds

Comb type is inherited with the breed and variety (WSU). Illinois Extension describes eight shapes, one of them a Silkie comb of its own; the drawings below follow its descriptions for seven, plus the walnut comb described by Wikipedia and Poultry Extension.

Sources do not always agree. Wisconsin lists the Chantecler as pea-combed; Wikipedia's comb article puts the Chantecler and Silkie under cushion combs, while its Silkie article says the standards call for a small walnut-shaped comb, and it gives the Houdan a separate leaf comb. Illinois also treats the Silkie's lumpy comb as a type of its own. Check the standard for your breed before calling a comb wrong.

Color and climate. Most combs are red, but Illinois lists purple combs on Sumatras, Silkies and Birchen and Brown Red Modern Games, and purplish-red on Sebrights. Small combs suit cold winters: Wisconsin notes that Wyandotte rose combs "do not freeze as easily as single combs," and the Livestock Conservancy says the Chantecler's small comb and wattles let it withstand cold winters without worry of frostbite. See winter care for frostbite.

How comb type is inherited

William Bateson used chicken combs to show that Mendel's rules apply to animals. Poultry Extension explains comb type as two dominant genes on different chromosomes, rose (R) and pea (P); one copy of either is enough to show:

Crossing a true-breeding rose-comb bird with a true-breeding pea-comb bird gives all walnut-combed chicks (RrPp). Crossing two of those gives on average 9/16 walnut, 3/16 rose, 3/16 pea and 1/16 single.

Hen or rooster: the external differences

1. Comb and wattles: their size is one of the differences Jacob lists; Wikipedia says combs are generally larger on cocks than on hens.
2. Hackle and cape feathers: pointed ends in males, rounded in females (Jacob; Kentucky).
3. Tail: males have long, curved sickle feathers (Jacob; Kentucky).
4. Back: Jacob notes that males have hackle feathers on their backs and females do not; WSU calls the back the saddle on a male and the cushion on a female.
5. Spurs: typically larger in males (Kentucky); Jacob counts spur size in older birds among the sex differences.

For chicks that can be sexed by color at hatch, see sex-link chickens.

Earlobes and egg color

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension specialist Gregory Archer: "Generally, hens with white earlobes will produce white eggs." It is a rule of thumb: Wisconsin names the Red Cap as one of the few breeds with red earlobes that lay white eggs. Breed by breed shell colors are on the egg color chart.

Head-to-toe check, using the diagram

1. Comb and wattles: size and color against the bird's breed and laying status.
2. Eye ring and beak: bleached in a layer, yellow in a non-layer.
3. Crop: empty first thing in the morning.
4. Hackle, cape and back: feather shape if you are unsure of sex.
5. Keel, abdomen and pubic bones: body condition and laying signs.
6. Vent: large, moist and bleached in a layer; part the feathers to look for lice.
7. Shanks, spurs and toes: feathering and toe count as your breed's standard describes them.

The full routine, with warning signs and when to call a vet, is on the hen health check page; part names are also defined in the glossary.