Brigid the wonder chicken is crowing! Why?

[RedheadErin]

We have this little, apparently older, RIR bantam. No question at all that this is a HEN. We bought her a year ago, at which time she was supposed to be 1 1/2 years old. She has never laid an egg and has become an indoor house pet.

This little hen does not like other chickens and usually does not care about them. She is terrified of the rooster and hates being mounted.

But this girl has a super-size personality for such a petite little bird. She is most definitely SPOILED.

And to day she started crowing. First she was just clucking a whole lot, then she gave out this little strangled noise like the boys make when they are learning to crow. First she did it just once, as if she was trying it out. Then she got out 3 big, loud cock-a-doodle crows!

What is going on here?

 

[Bunnylady]

You have two possibilities here. One is that this is a rather dominant-natured hen, and without a rooster around, she is asserting herself in her new territory by crowing. I had a Serama hen that did that while I was keeping her and her newly-hatched chicks in a large tote in my house. I never heard her doing it while in a pen with the rooster, I don't think he'd have liked it very much!

The other possibility is that this bird is undergoing a sex change. Hens have a single ovary; sometimes something happens to damage it. This causes a shift in the chicken's hormones. The higher level of testosterone causes the bird to develop some of the secondary sexual characteristics of a rooster (crowing, larger comb/wattles, longer tail feathers), though I understand these apparent hens-turned-roosters are not fertile. The fact that your bird has never laid eggs may indicate that there's something wrong with her ovary, does she look like a hen in every other way?

 

[RedheadErin]

Yes, she looks very feminine. In fact I met her sister at the county fair, and at first I did a double-take because they look identical.
I hope this is not going to change her personality.

At the moment, she is very sweet.