3 week old chicken - dare I say crowing?

[Seattlechick]

I am a first time Chicken mom and I have two wonderful little girls sitting in a reptile cage in the kitchen. They are part of the family now and have settled in with the two cats and the dog. Please keep in mind that you can only have 3 hens in the city of Seattle and no Roosters. This feisty little Barred Rock either tried to crow tonight (with no sound) or had something caught in her throat. Our family is attached to her so I really want someone to tell me I am paranoid.

 

[barg]

You're paranoid!
Actually I have no idea but welcome to the board.
I'm not sure about Seattle laws, but I do know that King County law say that if you have half an acre of land, you can have a maximum of 2000 chickens, but if you have less then half an acre, its three.
It still baffles me how they can go from 3 to 2000, but oh well.

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

Could it have been a yawn? I have seen similar behavior in all of my chickens, but so far no roos (still keeping an eye on my 5wkers, though!).

I think 3 wks is a little young for BRs, but I'm sure it's possible.

Post a pic and let us all guess! We love pics!!

-Meghan

 

[Seattlechick]

Oh man, this is serious. I have a nine year old son that loves animals. I do not want to have the discussion of what will happen to Stella.

BTW: She did this crowing about 5 times in a row. I will post a picture when I can figure out where they are on my HD. Stupid computer.

 

[silkiechicken]

Welcome. At three weeks and no sound coming out, it could very well be them stretching their neck out. They do that sometimes. A pic of "him" would be helpful. A boy at that age who's crowing would show comb development. Does his comb appear redder than the girls? If not you still might have two girls.

 

[barg]

There are several things that can cause that behavior.
If there’s no sound, I don't think you can call it a crow, it is probably just a yawn, or something may not have gone down the right way, or if it continues repeatedly and frequently, it could be gape worm, but I’d say it is most likely just a yawn.
Someone else pointed out to me once, a feather tickling their ear can also cause them to do that.

I agree with the other posts, the best thing you can do at this point is to post a pic, cause we really like pic's

 

[Jen71]

I discovered this old thread and wanted to revive it.
I have a 4 week old chick that does this very same "crowing" thing. It's a distinct neck stretch, her mouth opens wide, and it looks like sound should be coming out, but it's silent.

She does it several times in a row - while she is looking directly at me. It's quite strange - like she is trying to tell me something. LOL!
Otherwise she is completely healthy. No red comb or other signs of a "roo".

Has anyone heard of this before?

 

[Alphau]

When our chicks were five weeks old, we played some videos of roosters crowing to see if we could bait one or two of them into crowing. One Golden Laced Wyandotte, which we were crossing are fingers was a female, did the very same thing several times in a row while the video played. It stuck its head up open it mouth wide like a crow except nothing came out. This GLW was showing the least comb and wattle development out of all of our other Wyandottes. Oh well. It is now on the list of Roosters worth keeping. We also had another Golden Laced Wyandotte do it around 4 weeks old, but that wasn't much of a surprise because he is 100% boy. We had our first crow from a Black Australorp at 4.5 weeks old.

Hang in there though. Our chicks have a dismal male/female ratio, like 13/2, and none of our chicks tried to crow while they were only 3 weeks old. It took them another week

 

[Jen71]

Oh boy.
This is going to be interesting!
I will keep a close eye on her. She only seems to do it when she knows I am watching. I've been observing her behavior and haven't seen it. But as soon as I appear, she starts to crow.
PS - Maybe I should stop referring to her as "she"!

 

[Happy Chooks]

With a BR it's usually pretty easy to tell sex. So post a picture and we can tell you if you have a rooster or not.

It is possible for them to crow at that age. It's hard to describe the sound they make, but it's kinda like a turkey gobbling sound only higher pitch. They will stand stiff, stretch out their neck and the little squeaky sound comes out.

My welsummer started crowing at 4 days old. I wasn't positive what it was at first, but he kept doing it, so I figured it out. I have 11 day old chicks in my brooder and last night one of the splash orps crowed.