can hens crow???

[speckledhen]

6chickens in St. Charles, good video. I do realize that hens have occasionally been known to crow, but not one of the hens who've lived here ever have (have had close to 100 of them) and, in truth, I hope they never do, either.There's enough noise from the roosters!

There's an old saying: "Whistling girls & crowing hens always come to some bad end".

Bill, I've heard that expression and variations of it, LOL.



Mama Hen Chris, your SS hen made a sound similar to my Dellie hen, Maxie. That doesn't sound like crowing to me, not really. It's loud, though, for sure!​

 

[silky_3699]

well it can depend. sometimes it sounds like a crow and its not. i've known many people who thought thier hens were crowing when they wearn't. do you know exactly what a crow sounds like?

 

[tiki244]

Quote:
One of my hens that "crowed" for lack of a better word or understanding., did later on express all of her egg laying apperatus. But she was fine after that and still lived.

 

[Endur50]

Our original flock of 4 pullets all crowed. That's because they ended up all being roosters. The seller was very nice and took them all back in exchange for some others since he sold them to us as pullets. I played the "I SWEAR they are hens" game for weeks but finally gave in. They were a breed that was difficult to distinguish until egg laying time, wasn't any attempt on the sellers part to pull the wool over our eyes. We had a rough start to chickens, but now things are going smoothly. Maybe you'll have some other deciding characteristics-like saddle and hackle feathers?

 

[rngrbill]

My uncle (now 80 something) has had chickens his whole life. Funny thing is we were discussing this Sunday re: law stating "No crowing chickens". He said hens do and can crow but it sounds more like and adolesent crow.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I had a Sebright hen that crowed when it was just her and another hen in the cage. Once I set them out with other birds again this spring, she stopped. It was a clear crow, just like a Sebright roo's crow. It baffled me to hear it coming from the garage and then I busted up laughing that it was my hen!
What I have been told is if there is not a roo around, then sometimes a hen will start crowing if she is the dominant bird in the flock.

 

[Animalian]

Quote:
That's sounds very interesting and very gross at the same time. I always hear about bits of reproductive system coming out attached to eggs etc. Did it hang out, shrivle and drop off or did you have to had it removed once it happened?

Maybe It's like when fraternal twins are born as one person. Eg the flesh has one set of DNA and the blood the other. They have to stay on immuno-suppresants their whole lives to stop their body rejecting itself. Perhaps this was the same in your hen but the reproductive system was the bit with the different DNA so the body rejected it and forced/grew it out of the body. Like some people get with earrings, the skins shifts around it until the skin is so thin it just falls off.

 

[spikennipper]

Yep! I never used to believe this until my 2 year old Rhode island red hen started crowing! as others have said it is very far behind a real cockerel crow and is usually a long drawn out caw caw like a crow not a real loud clear as day cock a doodle doo! but she did used to fling her head back and flap her wings just like a cockerel! strange thing was she only started doing it after her only chick hatched when she was broody within the first week of bring out and about with him and then stopped suddenly, her chick is now coming up to 2 months old and I haven't heard her do it since! perhaps there is a prompt to such behaviour from hens maybe when they are feeling insecure it may make them feel better or warn predators that there is a cockerel about! incidentally does anyone have a crowing hen and a roo that crows? I have a feeling that hens that have no male company are more prone to doing this?

 

[pawsplus]

Quote:
Trust me--they do! My Clarice is very much a hen--still producing 3-5 eggs at week at age 8!!! And she crows on a regular basis. She's the boss hen--none of the others have ever done it (and she'd probably slap them silly if they tried it!).

 

[dolly85]

I've owned chickens for several years as well and I have never had a hen crow. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but a crowing hen isn't exactly a common occurrence. I highly doubt the OP has three crowing hens and would bet that they are roos. Pictures pleeeeease!