Can a hen crow???

[Oz Chook]

My son swears that he heard our 4 month old Rhode Island Red crowing this morning... Do hens crow?

We're pretty certain that she is not a rooster. She was ill a couple of weeks ago and I took her to the vet, I'm guessing that he would have told me if she was in fact a he...

While her voice had been changing over the last few weeks from cheep cheep to a cluck, she sounded like a goose, perhaps this is what he heard? The hen house is right by his bedroom window so he gets all the early morning noises and can hear them best.

I sat outside for an hour this morning and heard nothing, do they only crow in the morning if it is a rooster?

So many questions I know!

 

[silkiechicken]

If you can post a pic, we can confirm gender by 4 months usually. Some cases of hens crowing do occur, this is almost always when there is no real rooster present.

 

[BantyChickMom]

I have an oegb hen that crowed every morning for a couple of weeks.

She has always been with a rooster and we have several more roosters right around her .
She went broody, hatched 1 little chick, I took the chick to put with another lone chick, and about a week later, the little girl started crowing.

After a few weeks she went back to laying and hasn't crowed since.

 

[Oz Chook]

Here are some pics that I took today. Let me know what you think... For a size comparison, the first one is Lucy with Molly our Light Sussex. They are the same age.

This is Lucy.

I hope she is not a he, we are not allowed to keep roosters where we live and I'd hate to have to see him/her go!

 

[silkiechicken]

Hmm... sorry to break it to you... but I think Lucy is a boy. I think I see the start of hackle feathers coming out from his sides and he has some very thick legs for a girl.

 

[Oz Chook]

Oh no!

I was really hoping it was just a tomboy hen

When (and how) would I be able to tell 100%, or is pretty much a certainty?

 

[silkiechicken]

If you could get some higher resolution pics of his neck and back feathers, I could probably give you a 99% guess at this age. If you go inspect his feathers on his neck and back, and find the ones still growing out of the fat pin feathers, and see they are pointy and very shiny compared to the same feathers that are roundish on your hens... then you have a rooster. The first pic you have there has a lot of hackle reflection, and that sings out roo to me. Good luck.

 

[Oz Chook]

After work I'll see if I can get either a better photo or will dig around in the feathers!

Will let you know how i go, thanks heaps for your help so far

 

[BantyChickMom]

Silkie,

Wouldn't there be more "tail feathers" sticking up and out if it were a rooster?

I'm going with a hen right now.

And since you're not allowed to have roosters,

The dominant hen will take on the role of a rooster in a
"roosterless" flock, anything from crowing to even mounting the other hens.

Better pics would help us tremendously.

 

[SpottedCrow]

I think hen too...only for the fact that there would be sickles in the tail feathers.

I had a crowing hen...I miss her...