9-week-old pullet started crowing...

[sarafrog]

...after I got rid of the 9-week cockerel. I've read that this is normal...but will she ever stop? She's a Cuckoo Maran and is housed with a Jersey Giant pullet of the same age. I'm gradually introducing them to my 2 Australorp hens who are about 19 months old and plan to put them all together in another month or so, assuming aggression is minimal among them.

Does every roosterless flock have a dominant hen? If so, does that hen usually persist in crowing? I live in the suburbs and promised my neighbors that I wouldn't have roosters. Now I may have a problem...but once she starts laying I'll be able to give them eggs more often which may help.

 

[saddina]

Yes every flock has a dominant bird, but no mine doesn't crow (city hens). Hen or not, if it crows you may have issues, here our rule is "if it crows, it goes", find out what your city allows in terms of roosters and plan accordingly.

 

[Attack Chicken]

My pullet did the same thing....She hatched out on 1/1/09 and has crowed every morning for the past 3 days. We have no shortage or roos either. She spends a lot of time with m banty roos outback so I'm thinking thats her problem. Kinda funny though

 

[flakey chick]

I'm lucky. My dominant hen crows silently- Definitely trying though. And she even gets the testosterone leg stripes. I now have a young cockerel. I saw him try the silent crow thingy. Very cute- heh heh. Maybe I'll be super lucky. We live out in the country and can hear crows from a good deal away so they do have something to imitate. The city near us doesn't allow chickens who crow.

 

[sarafrog]

Any thoughts on training her out of it? I'm thinking maybe a squirt of water from a spray bottle every time she crows (my husband has had good luck with this strategy with dogs in the past).

 

[Cetawin]

My dominant hen will mount the other girls like the little roo but she does not try to crow, she is very quiet. I do not know if a water bottle treatment will help or not.

 

[pips&peeps]

If it is only 9 weeks old, I doubt it is a pullet. I would think it was a cockerel to begin with.

It's not even sexually mature enough yet to go through a sex change.

 

[sarafrog]

She's definitely a pullet. I had two cuckoo marans from the same hatch and they started looking noticeably different at about 3 weeks. The cockerel's comb seemed to grow about 1/4 inch overnight. It kept growing, getting redder, wattles starting to show, etc. Even his body shape was different from hers. He started to try crowing at about 6 weeks and had a decent little crow by 8 weeks...

I gave him away at 8.5 weeks. Then the pullet suddenly started to crow in the mornings. Argh. I'm hoping to be able to get her to stop. She still has a small comb, wattles just starting to show, and a broad, round body shape.

 

[Farm Frenzy]

Yes but that does not necessarily mean that the one crowing is not a male too. Usually there is one dominant male in a group. i had 2 males together once, and one crowed, one didn't because he was the submissive one. once I got rid of the dominant one, the submissive one never shuts up!!! It also could be a delayed developer, which happens...trust me. sound to me like you got a little boy on your hands, and he was the submissive one. All roosters don't develope at the same time, or the same way.

 

[Jades Chickens]

I got to say I agree with Farm Frenzy on this. I would be shocked

if it is seirously a pullet. As for getting a chicken to not make noise

. When you find out how let us all know. If it ends up being a hen please write on this thread and let us know. I would really like to know.