Egg Laying Hen Crowing in a No Rooster Zone :(

[chicken_tv]

Hey all,

New chicken owner here. Currently have four 5 month old pullets. We've had to rehome 2 roosters as we live in a No-Rooster Zone and recently adopted an egg laying hen since we had the extra space.

Since our new hen Pearl was joining us from another farm, we quarantined her for a week and a half just to ensure her new bacteria wouldn't effect our younger pullets. We allowed her to free range in our yard and she has been loving it!

Unfortunately last week she began crowing as seen here:

She typically starts up at 5:30am which means we go out to let her free range and have her quiet down / not wake up our neighbors.

We thought once we integrated her into the coop she might stop, but she hasn't. In fact, today she's been crowing all morning!

We also understand the difference between her Egg Song (which she sings often and is more like little chuckles) and this full on rooster-wannabe crowing.

Again, living in a no-rooster zone, our neighbors have begun asking questions & have been understanding, but we don't want to push it too far with them.

What can we do for Pearl to get her to stop crowing? She came from a farm with roosters, so maybe is taking over that role as the biggest hen in the flock?

Any advice is much appreciated. She's been with us a little over 2 weeks now and we don't want to have to re-home her again, but we also are stressing a lot about the noise (we have 8 neighboring houses that would be able to hear her crows).

Thank you!

 

[aart]

Hmmmm.....closer pics might help.
That is definitely crowing.
Are you positive she's a she?
How old is she, in weeks or months?
Has she laid?
Sometimes older hens can have a hormone imbalance which can spark male behaviors.
The move may have stressed her
Not too uncommon for a hen to crow....but it sure is annoying, eh?

Oh, and..... Welcome to BYC! @chicken_tv
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[chicken_tv]

Hi there @aart thanks for the reply!

Here's a closer pic:

Are you positive she's a she?
We are 100% sure she is a female Lavender Orpington. We adopted her from our friend who raises chickens. Pearl came to live with us because she was the rooster's favorite and he was breeding her 10x a day / the other hens were bullying her. She was in really bad shape. The above photo is a vast improvement from when she arrived!

How old is she, in weeks or months?
Pearl is 2 years and some change now.

Has she laid?
She's laid around 8 eggs since she's been with us. (Our other pullets are still quite young and have not begun lay.)

We integrated Pearl into the coop with our Pullets after posting the above video to see if that would help. She is still crowing

I'm interested to hear more about the hormone imbalance, but we also think it may be because she is asserting dominance over our pullets who had an established pecking order? Especially since she is so much older than they are. They're quite scared of her actually, despite being super friendly, sweet cuddly chickens.

Thanks so much for the warm welcome. I've added location to my profile per your recommendation.

Appreciate any further thoughts!

 

[aart]

Since she's laying...the hormone balance thing may be off the table.
I'd agree more of a dominance behavior as she make her way into the new flock.
They should be afraid, lol, she's the new queen, due to her maturity and experience.
Hopefully she in not too hard on them.
The crowing might continue or not.
Sorry, there are often no hard answers, or solutions.

 

[wemimew]

I have hens that go through phases of crowing. One crowed non stop when I had to rehome a rooster (her boyfriend) poor thing. She settled down and only does it occasionally now if her nest box is occupied. They seem to do it when they are excited or frustrated here.

 

[chicken_tv]

Oh my gosh that's so sad! She sounds very in tune with her emotions. We're hoping Pearl settles down more this week. We are trying to be patient as she has had a lot of new adjustments this past month.

Thanks all!

 

[chicken_tv]

Update: We integrated Pearl into our flock and she made herself at home. The crowing did not stop and she continued laying eggs. After another 2 weeks we ended up returning Pearl to her original homestead. The rooster who was mating her too much is no longer with us (RIP), so Pearl now rules that roost!