How to stop a female hen crowing?!

[SwampPrincessChick]

Noise ordinances will trump that.

True, especially with over 160 decibels in your backyard.

 

[-Chanticleer-]

Is she at the top of the pecking order?

 

[JulesRSA]

This is the answer. Normally female chickens only crow on a rare instance that danger is nearby. Before I had any roosters, my hen Averie crowed when a coyote ran across the neighbors yard - after nearly getting hit by a car. She alerted the flock about that, but didn't do it ever again that I heard. A hen crowing all the time - like a rooster is like a one in a million chance - Yes, we are probably going to need pictures to confirm that its a hen and not a young cockerel.
Very good advice @SwampPrincessChick

She’s definitely not a young cockerel - over a year old and has been laying 4-5 lovely large white eggs every week for about 6 months now! I wondered about a spontaneous sex change but she’s young, and hasn’t stopped laying, either

I definitely won’t be trying the “no-crow collar” @SwampPrincessChick but thanks for the heads up, all the same. I’ve read far too many horror stories about collars and I love this girl, I would never want to hurt her or even make her uncomfortable.

My problem is that our bylaws refer to “crowing fowl” and our local authorities are very reactive, so I don’t think it would even matter than I can prove she’s not a rooster - they’d probably fine me and might well order me to get rid of the whole flock!

I think I have identified a new home for my Tilly girl with friends of a friend who have a large, free-ranging flock of very spoiled hens and a rooster (so they don’t mind crowing) - they live about 45mins away on a much larger, semi-rural property. I really don’t want to give her up, but I also don’t want to jeopardize my whole flock/being able to keep chickens, and I do also understand that it’s not fair to my suburban neighbors who didn’t sign up for the pre-5am wake up call been hoping for a “miracle cure” but it seems this is just who she is!!

 

[JulesRSA]

Is she at the top of the pecking order?

She is! And there are no “challengers” to her authority, as far as I can tell from observing them. Tilly is not particularly dominant or “rooster-ish” in her behaviour other than crowing - she doesn’t peck or attempt to mount the others girls, but she’s first in and out of the coop at night/in the morning, and first to eat and drink, and she has no problems muscling other birds out the way if e.g. she wants to grab a snack or wants a specific place at the feeder.

I recently lost one of my flock, but the crowing escalation had already started a week or so before Bella suddenly passed away.

We don’t have any predator issues (I’ve checked my cameras and I’m in a very suburban area - I very occasionally see a sparrowhawk flying past, but never close enough to bother the girls) although we do have wild Guineafowl roaming the streets and roosting in nearby trees… they don’t come into my property, and neither do the neighbourhood cats really, because of my dogs but the Guineafowl will be audible and sometimes visible from the chicken run when they roost in the evenings (although the girls go into their coop around the same time?)

I also moved here in May, so if it was the Guineas, I would have thought Tilly would have started the crowing before now?

 

[-Chanticleer-]

She is! And there are no “challengers” to her authority, as far as I can tell from observing them. Tilly is not particularly dominant or “rooster-ish” in her behaviour other than crowing - she doesn’t peck or attempt to mount the others girls, but she’s first in and out of the coop at night/in the morning, and first to eat and drink, and she has no problems muscling other birds out the way if e.g. she wants to grab a snack or wants a specific place at the feeder.

I recently lost one of my flock, but the crowing escalation had already started a week or so before Bella suddenly passed away.

We don’t have any predator issues (I’ve checked my cameras and I’m in a very suburban area - I very occasionally see a sparrowhawk flying past, but never close enough to bother the girls) although we do have wild Guineafowl roaming the streets and roosting in nearby trees… they don’t come into my property, and neither do the neighbourhood cats really, because of my dogs but the Guineafowl will be audible and sometimes visible from the chicken run when they roost in the evenings (although the girls go into their coop around the same time?)

I also moved here in May, so if it was the Guineas, I would have thought Tilly would have started the crowing before now?

Try resetting the pecking order? It may get her to stop if she knows she’s no longer the top bird.

 

[LaysnGwen]

I have a very loud hen. I use a rooster collar but not tight. When she starts screaming for fun I tell her no and spray bottle her. After that she gets the silly Velcro collar and i fluff up all her feathers and this keeps her busy and the yelling stops. Over time it’s pretty effective! She’s too busy and annoyed to be screaming.

They don’t seem to really like laying eggs with them on so I take them off at night and noon so they can rest. It’s just a short term redirection.

 

[EOD Daddy]

My grandmother who raised chickens by the 100s. Always said " A whistling women and a crowing hen always comes to some bad end!" She instantly chopped its head off and it was dinner. Lol And yes she had roosters too. I guess in her day women were not to whistle and hens did not crow. A simple time. Lol

 

[skeeeter]

She is! And there are no “challengers” to her authority, as far as I can tell from observing them. Tilly is not particularly dominant or “rooster-ish” in her behaviour other than crowing - she doesn’t peck or attempt to mount the others girls, but she’s first in and out of the coop at night/in the morning, and first to eat and drink, and she has no problems muscling other birds out the way if e.g. she wants to grab a snack or wants a specific place at the feeder.

I recently lost one of my flock, but the crowing escalation had already started a week or so before Bella suddenly passed away.

We don’t have any predator issues (I’ve checked my cameras and I’m in a very suburban area - I very occasionally see a sparrowhawk flying past, but never close enough to bother the girls) although we do have wild Guineafowl roaming the streets and roosting in nearby trees… they don’t come into my property, and neither do the neighbourhood cats really, because of my dogs but the Guineafowl will be audible and sometimes visible from the chicken run when they roost in the evenings (although the girls go into their coop around the same time?)

I also moved here in May, so if it was the Guineas, I would have thought Tilly would have started the crowing before now?

So... you are not allowed to have "crowing fowl" but screeching guinea fowl have free run of your neighborhood... Strange World.

 

[JulesRSA]

I

Try resetting the pecking order? It may get her to stop if she knows she’s no longer the top bird.

I tried - isolated her in a dog crate for a week (it also stops the crowing) let the other girls work out a new hierarchy and re-introduced Tilly. If anything I think it made the crowing worse! Also, second in command hen is the one who recently died, and the rest are very passive. Nobody’s really keen to take her on

 

[JulesRSA]

So... you are not allowed to have "crowing fowl" but screeching guinea fowl have free run of your neighborhood... Strange World.

Tell me about it And they are waaaaay louder than any crowing hen could hope to be, especially if their roosts are disturbed at night!

The thing is, while there isn’t much anyone can do about the wild Guineafowl, they can report me and my by-law breaching chickens

I’d hope that any annoyed neighbour would be courteous enough to contact me before trying to do something like that, but you never know…