My 1-year-old hen is crowing!

[Auburnchick]

I have a flock of 5 hens in my suburban back yard. Roosters are NOT allowed in our city limits.....

This morning I looked out the window and saw my "alpha" hen up on a roost bar in the run, CROWING. Or making her best effort. LOL! Yes, I am SURE she is a "she"--I know she's laid eggs, and she doesn't have the right feathering for a roo.

I've heard that hens can do this when they get to the end of their laying years and their hormones shift....but I wasn't expecting it from my girls this early!

It's not really that big a deal, except I don't want my neighbors to turn me in for having a rooster!

 

[sparkles2307]

Oh my! I hope you don't get turned in either. Maybe if you set a hatchet and a stewpot out there she'll pipe down? Just kidding That is interesting behavior tho!

 

[Tikkijane]

Let her sleep in the house overnight so she doesn't wake anyone up.... keep her in where it's dark so you can get some sleep, lol.

Seriously, though, your others don't do variations of the egg song? Used to have one who would screech before laying; now she just sings loudly.

If she really is a she and you can prove it, they can turn you in, but seems to me they can't fine you or anything because you don't actually HAVE a roo.

How well do you know your neighbors?

'Course, you could just go and love on her when she's making noise, too..........

 

[Auburnchick]

Maybe she was just proclaiming her pride in her egg-laying skills....They each have their own way of making an "announcement" after laying. I've just never seen any of them crow.

Fortunately, it's not as loud as a rooster crow. It's got the same pattern, and she was using the same "bowed up" posture when she did it, but I hope that it won't annoy anyone too much.

Our chicken laws here are very new....only starting last summer were we able to have hens in the city limits. I really want things to go well and for the city not to get a lot of complaints. I want to be able to keep my birds!

I don't know my neighbors at all on one side. On the other side, we have the buffer of an empty lot.

 

[Tikkijane]

Maybe she was just proclaiming her pride in her egg-laying skills....They each have their own way of making an "announcement" after laying. I've just never seen any of them crow.

Fortunately, it's not as loud as a rooster crow. It's got the same pattern, and she was using the same "bowed up" posture when she did it, but I hope that it won't annoy anyone too much.

Our chicken laws here are very new....only starting last summer were we able to have hens in the city limits. I really want things to go well and for the city not to get a lot of complaints. I want to be able to keep my birds!

I don't know my neighbors at all on one side. On the other side, we have the buffer of an empty lot.

Empty lots are good.

We've got one who will periodically sound like a dog, lol, and one of my BOs regularly sounds like a honking goose.

I think you'll probably be fine- some say a good way to meet the neighbors is to go over with some eggs, fwiw. My neighbors get out eggs, and the chickies are the fascination of the neighborhood. The kids love them!