Do hens "crow" like roosters?

[Jon J]

I have three big plump white hens. I had another white one that turned out to be a roo instead. Of the three, One is now crowing like a roo but has the large body of a hen. The other white roo is half the size of the three white hens, So I'm kind of puzzled here. Thanks.

 

[firem3]

ive always been told that some hens can and will crow, especially if there was a roo that had been in the flock and was removed.

 

[arlee453]

Hens will crow from time to time. It's not common, but not THAT unusual either. As firem said, often crowing hens happen when there is no rooster in the flock and a dominate hen takes on the role of the rooster.

 

[SamG347]

When I introduced a new rooster once...it made my Blue Ameraucana mad...she leaned back and let out a crow. It was the funniest thing ever. We later took the roo out and she went back to normal. Guess it wasnt love at first sight hah

 

[SpottedCrow]

It most certainly CAN happen.
I had a bird that was a true hermaphrodite...Slifer the Sky Dragon had huge spurs, was male feathered, and crowed. I put her on female hormones for a month and she STILL crowed, but laid me a beautiful baby yellow egg.

My 5 year old Leghorn hen, Obelisk the Tormentor, is done with her egglaying for the year. She's been moulting since July. And she's also crowing, so it's a hormonal thing with her.

 

[HorseFeathers]

Hens sometimes will crow, they will also grow spurs (they don't make sexing easy for us, do they?). Not a normal hen behavior, but yes, it does happen.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

I think there are many conversations about this. It seems like it comes up about twice a day lately. Must be Hen crowing season or something...

 

[lindseykoehler]

Yep - hens can crow. We had one...the white Delaware hen in my photo. She didn't do it all that often...but one morning she woke us up at 5:30am...crowing, still on her perch. That was too much so we gave her to a local farm that sometimes takes in homeless animals. Incidentally, we had 3 hens, got them as chicks and we never had a rooster. She took on the rooster role. And we're sure she was a SHE because she laid eggs!!!

 

[missourichickenmama]

whistling girls and crowing hens always come to some bad end. couldn't resist that one although i whistle a lot it drives my mom crazy back to the question i have no clue

 

[UrbanviewFarm]

I too, have a hen who crowed a few times before deciding to lay eggs. She's a FBCM and I only heard her crow about three times during her adolescence. Kind of puts a hole in the whole 'if it crows its a rooster and if it lays an egg its a hen' theory...

We call her NGSC, or Nongender-Specific Chicken.