A little help?

[jj384ev]

So, I've posted in the past trying to get help with identification. I believe that I now know what to look for in identifying a rooster. That being said, I'm now confused and think I may have a "crowing" hen. I know this isn't uncommon, but here's the situation. I had a very dominant rooster that crowed every morning and a non-dominant rooster in my coop. I can't have roosters so they were rehomed to a friend's free range farm just last week. In place of them I brought back 2 hens. Now, my barred rock, who never made more than a clucking sound before, made a very faint and sick sounding "crow attempt" this morning. It was not the same sound I heard from the rooster I gave away when he was learning to crow and they are the exact same age raised together. She is not quite as large as the rooster I gave away, has no spurs, no saddle feathers, but does have a full red comb and waddle (so does my neighbors big hens though), is about 16-18weeks old and should be laying age and size.

Could it be that I just had a subordinate rooster who now is learning how to crow or could this still be a hen taking on the roll of her rooster buddy who is now gone? I know either my RIW or this barred rock is laying large white eggs, just not sure which one. The other chickens lay very small pink/tan eggs. She is more dominant and the other original hens follow her around and she was very fast to establish pecking order with the new hens that came in by pecking their necks. A little help?

Below is her just 2 weeks ago:

 

[AmericanMom]

It is not uncommon for a Dominant hen to "take over" duties previously held by a rooster, it is also not uncommon for a cockerel to hold back because of a resident rooster.. That being said, I am not a qualified breed identifier but I have a barred rock rooster and hen and I have always been under the impression that the males were light in color and the females dark. Although the comb and waddles on yours are bigger, that looks just like my hen

I have an Australorp hen that would mount the other hens and go through the motions of mating them until I got the rooster... Although she doesn't do that anymore it took her awhile before she would allow the rooster to cover her and would attack him when he tried to cover the other hens (at first, not anymore)

 

[jj384ev]

I agree she looks to dark to be a rooster. Every barred rooster I've ever seen is much lighter. She is very dark black. I've been told she was a rooster just because of the comb but there is so much more to identification then a comb. I have a feeling since she grew up with her rooster buddy and is close to his size and is kind of next in pecking order, she learned from his behavior. She is a heavy breed and all my others are smaller breeds so she's going to be much larger.

Current pic of her today

 

[AmericanMom]

I agree she looks to dark to be a rooster. Every barred rooster I've ever seen is much lighter. She is very dark black. I've been told she was a rooster just because of the comb but there is so much more to identification then a comb. I have a feeling since she grew up with her rooster buddy and is close to his size and is kind of next in pecking order, she learned from his behavior. She is a heavy breed and all my others are smaller breeds so she's going to be much larger.

Current pic of her today

Oye... She does look pretty rooster-ish.... I guess the only way to really tell is 1) if s/he covers the hens and 2) if the eggs end up being fertile..... See if s/he gets the crow on better and just watch, I cannot tell from that picture if its got saddle feather.. Here is my BR roo ... he is around 6-7 months.. full crow and is actively trying to cover hens

 

[jj384ev]

It's strange how dark she/he is and has the dark topped feet. Same color as a barred hen would be and not much larger than my RIW who is just about 2 weeks younger then her/him. Either she or my RIW is laying large white eggs, not many but some. I feel like my RIW, being a few weeks behind, isn't ready to lay yet, but maybe she is! I also have 2 new hens, but they are significantly smaller then my frizzle, RIW, and this barred. Here's a pic of all of them. Besides the RIW do you know if any of these others should be laying large white eggs? As far as I know, only the heavy breeds lay larger white eggs. The barred and the RIW are the only two heavy breed hens I have. I do remember a picture that was shared with me on a thread here that said when they are ready to lay the butt gets poofier. She has almost fuzzy looking feathers all around her butt. So, I still am at a loss. The "crowing", if you could even call it that, only last about 10minutes and it was well after the sun came up this morning. I've never heard she/he do that before. She/he is a very noisy chicken when it talks to us when we are outside. Other than what seems like the pecking order disputes, there is no aggression or mounting that takes place. I have a webcam in the pen so they are watched 24/7. I'm just confused now!

 

[AmericanMom]

It's strange how dark she/he is and has the dark topped feet. Same color as a barred hen would be and not much larger than my RIW who is just about 2 weeks younger then her/him. Either she or my RIW is laying large white eggs, not many but some. I feel like my RIW, being a few weeks behind, isn't ready to lay yet, but maybe she is! I also have 2 new hens, but they are significantly smaller then my frizzle, RIW, and this barred. Here's a pic of all of them. Besides the RIW do you know if any of these others should be laying large white eggs? As far as I know, only the heavy breeds lay larger white eggs. The barred and the RIW are the only two heavy breed hens I have. So, I still am at a loss. The "crowing", if you could even call it that, only last about 10minutes and it was well after the sun came up this morning. I've never heard she/he do that before. She/he is a very noisy chicken when it talks to us when we are outside. Other than what seems like the pecking order disputes, there is no aggression or mounting that takes place. I have a webcam in the pen so they are watched 24/7. I'm just confused now!

Looks like you have a Leghorn there, although it doesn't look old enough to lay (comb and waddle pretty small and pink) my leghorn is a small hen but lays a large white egg and she just started laying about 3 weeks ago.. Other then that not sure of the different breeds and egg laying colors and sizes..

 

[jj384ev]

OHHH, so what I thought was a Rhode Island White (that's what I was told she was) is actually a leghorn? Wow! She's extremely docile and so that makes sense. Her "brother" I just had to give away, because he was a rooster. He may have been mixed because he had some tan colored feathers on his head and a couple tan speckles.

 

[AmericanMom]

OHHH, so what I thought was a Rhode Island White (that's what I was told she was) is actually a leghorn? Wow! She's extremely docile and so that makes sense. Her "brother" I just had to give away, because he was a rooster. He may have been mixed because he had some tan colored feathers on his head and a couple tan speckles.

Looking at that photo,I agree, its a cross... Being a cross they can still lay white eggs tho..... I have an EE that lays a very very light powder blue, almost white egg

 

[AmericanMom]

I hope if I am wrong someone will chime in and give you the information you need... I'm going on instinct, I have raised chickens for several years but just added a rooster last year and am pretty new to the different breeds and behaviors

I read a lot here and have learned tons just raising my own

 

[Aquabubblez13]

The sure way to tell is the spurs. If it has spurs then it IS a rooster. If it has NO spurs then it is a hen. The one you gave away that had no spurs was probably a hen.
If you look at their feet and don't see any spurs but just a tiny little dot/ bump where the spur should be, then it is a hen for sure!

Right now I have 2 hens that are crowing and they think they are roosters- they even try to mount the other hens. Your hen should snap out of it, though!

Good luck!