Hens crowing 30+ weeks and no eggs

Pinguella

In the Brooder
5 Years
Oct 7, 2014
17
0
22
We have 2 Wyandotte hens and a cochin rooster in one coop. The hens are about 30 weeks old, the rooster ia about 12 months.
The hens have not started laying eggs and the behavior in the coop is a bit strange.
Both hens crow, the rooster also crows but not as much as the hens. The rooster is the only one with an interest for the nesting boxes. Looks like the rooster is not in control of his two hens...
They all look healthy, live indoors with lights and heating (around 15°C). They have about 9 hours full light and the rest of the time there is a small nightlight. There is no fighting or picking of feathers. There are plenty of room since each coop is a stable box for one horse.

Why do our hens crow like crazy when there is a rooster with them?

Next to them we have another coop with sussex chickens at 19 weeks, 3 roosters and one hen. These roosters don't crow yet and so far they get along good, no fighting or picking in their coop either. We had another cochin rooster in this coop up until yesterday when we gave him away.

Could the sussex roosters and the cochin that left yesterday next to the wyandotte/cochin coop be a reason for the strange behavior? The cochin that left yesterday had a more normal rooster behavior.

We are new to keeping chickens, got all of them in august. We have a summer coop in the garden where the wyandottes/cochins stayed until the temperatures dropped and we moved them into the stable where the sussex has been since we got them at 3 weeks of age.
We put one of the roosters in with the chickens at this time because the two cochin roosters started fighting.
The norwegian winters gives a temperature around minus 20-30°C so its better for us to move them then trying to keep the gardencoop warm.

Somehow we have managed to get the strangest behavior, no eggs, a rooster that acts more like a hen and two hens that are crowing...

What should we do? Is it possible that the Wyandottes will start laying eventually or should we put them into our dinnerplans?

Also we are thinking about moving the sussex hen in with the wyandottes but will this result in fights when the wyandottes behave like they do now?

Thankful for any advice on what we could do to change this strange behavior....:yiipchick
 
You might want to post pictures of your birds, while a dominant hen may occasionally take on some of the behaviors of a rooster (crowing) if you don't have a roo, hens generally do not crow if there is a rooster present... would wonder if you have more roos than you think.
 
Ok, I will take a picture.
We got them from a breeder who guaranteed it was hens, and the sound compared to the small roosters is different. Not as powerful and a longer less "sharp" sound, so kind of a bad imitation.
The rooster in the nextdoor coop was crowing a lot, at first one of the wyandottes replied and now that he's gone the other "hen" has started as well..
We have no prior experience with birds so we have been asking ourselves if they could be roosters the last weeks since there are no eggs yet, but the roosters of sussex breed is already larger then the wyandottes and they are 10-15 weeks younger....
I'll take a picture of the wyandottes. If they turn out to be rooster I'm guessing they will be dinner during christmas. :barnie
 
You may have young roosters learning to crow. They sound pitiful when they are learning. Also, mature roosters do go in nest boxes talking and moving their heads, as if to show the hens where to lay an egg.
 
Yes the cochin goes in there and smalltalks, testing out every box. But he also tries to get on top of the wyandottes as if to mate. Kicks around and clucks as ifhe's found something great and then tries to jump them.
I have been out to take a pic or ten but they are roosting at this time so not to easy to get a god picture. Try to get them out of my phone and onto the internet asap.
 
OMG, I'm starting to belive it's not hens. Looking at other pics online of the wyandotte hens I'm not too convinced anymore. I put my trust in the breeder of this birds. Is it even possible to tell the sex of a wyandotte at say 12-15 weeks?
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Omg, here we have been feeding roosters for several months, and payed a sick price because she guaranteed it was hens. She is going to get told off. Out of 5 chickens and theese 2 we got 1(!) hen, i hope that one is not just another slow developed rooster..
 
Pictures of any other chickens you have question about need to be posted so you can sort this mess out. And any breeder worth her salt will be glad to straighten out this 'mistake'. Take a deep breath and give her a phone call. And by the way, this 'mistake' happens a LOT!
 
I only have one bad pic of the sussex chickens.. I think this is one of each. If so she sure has enough roosters...
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