Do Hens ever Crow?

[jahphotogal]

My little flock of five birds is about 9 weeks old now. Early on when one started getting a red comb long before the others, I'd wondered if it was a rooster, but looked up the breed, Austra White, and read that even the hens develop early. But it's the biggest and most aggressive, too and this morning when someone came to visit (friend of mine, stranger to them) it crowed - at least a dozen times. It was croaky and tentative, but unmistakeable! Here are a few pics. I'm afraid I'll have to find a new home for Prince Charming (previously named Snow White) immediately. Luckily I know quite a few farmers - hopefully one can be induced to take him!


Top view

Glamorous head shot

So can you tell for sure - Austra White hen or rooster? (Or something else altogether?)

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

Hens do crow, but those are mature hens that live in a roosterless flock usually. Yours is definitly a cockerel.

 

[jahphotogal]

fancyfowl, what's the tipoff - the comb? the saddle feathers in the top view? or am I being silly to cling to the hope that there could be a possibility he is a she - after all, he did CROW...

 

[hdowden]

i dont know of any breed that has pullets with that size comb and that red at 9 weeks of age plus it crowed, some pullets do have large combs early on but they arent nearly as red and for the most are yellow or slightly pink. only hens i have ever heard crow didnt have a rooster in the flock and they were over a year old.

 

[jahphotogal]

Actually I think he's only 8 weeks old, not 9!

 

[hdowden]

Actually I think he's only 8 weeks old, not 9!

a week younger...yea that makes him even more of a cockerel sorry

 

[speckledhen]

Hens may on rare occasions be known to crow.. but that is not a hen. It's a very young chick. And it's a cockerel, no doubt whatsoever. NO pullet gets a huge red comb at that age, in any breed.

 

[jahphotogal]

Destined for the soup pot, I guess. The farmers I know aren't sentimental - nobody will take him except to process.

 

[jahphotogal]

Well, I'm proud of my daughter. This has been our project together, and Snow White is her particular chicken (she named him.) We've asked all the farmers we know, and none of them want to adopt a rooster, so we've decided that if he has to be slaughtered, he should go to a hungry family that can't afford food. I will call our local food pantry this week and see how to arrange it!

 

[BlueCamas]

Definitely a cockerel.