Do hens crow?

[PCNash]

Silly question but I've never had really young chickens (these came from a person vs feedstore). Do young - as in not yet egg-laying age - hens ever crow? Make a sort of a CUkoo sort of sound? We recently acquired a group of young chickens - past chickies but not pullets that were all supposed to be hens (though so far 7 of 15 were roosters!). One looks like a hen - no plummy tail, no long legs, no spurs - sort of short and plumpish. This one has been injured and says out of the chicken yard away from the others who pick on it. This one chicken has recently started crowing - sort of. So - do young hens ever crow?

 

[gritsar]

In flocks without a rooster a hen will sometimes take over the work of the rooster. She'll stop laying, start crowing, and become the protector of the flock. Can you post a pic of the hen? in question? Maybe we could help you with the sexing.

 

[ivan3]

I've posted up our RSL, Big Red, before (so apologies to those who've seen her already). She has been crowing, one count behind the roo (never first), every morning (never at any other time of day) for nearly three years (have baby monitor in coop - excellent alarm clock). She has gotten much more accomplished as she has become more experienced. She `talks' (has a whine for everything, i.e., there's a bug, I want a grape, what's that?, etc.) more than any of the other hens or roo. She has, as best as we can figure, laid one rubber egg and one `f*rt egg during her life. She has sharp spurs, but displays no other `rooish' behaviors.

That's her roosting next to the rooster

Here she is surveying the territory

For those wondering about what a f*art egg is

(hummingbird is biological scale assay)

 

[SpottedCrow]

I had a crowing hen.