My hen is CROWING.......

[DarleneE]

Hello,

Can anyone please help me shed some light on this?? My 2 1/2 yr old Barred Rock hen has started to CROW!!! we lost our only other little chicken almost 2 weeks ago. She was a very gentle, sweet Easter Egger and I'm just devastated. She was my little angel. Let me do anything to her. The Barred Rock clearly was the alpha bird at the top of the pecking order.
She acts fine. She is eating, drinking, normal poo, she plays outside taking her dirt baths and eating grass and digging etc etc etc. Sooooooo I really have no way of knowing if she's grieving her or what??? She's just started doing this a couple of days ago. I do have to say that this did begin AFTER my phone alarm went off while I was out there with her feeding, cleaning, etc and the alarm is in fact a rooster crowing!!! Could that have influenced her possibly??? I am just so confused. Sadly my husband won't let me get another chicken. Our next door neighbor also has just one chicken who I'm sure she hears. Knowing how chickens are, I don't suppose we can just introduce them to each other to play maybe??? Is this possible or would they fight??? How about if they are introduced thru a fence maybe since our porch is divided in half with my chicken's coup and run is on one half and the other half is ours??? I'm thinking maybe they could start seeing each other and maybe communicating or something??? Lol I'm grabbing at straws here as you can see!!! You can see it for yourself in my video below.

I'd appreciate ANY thoughts or ideas please!!!

 

[junebuggena]

It's actually pretty typical of an older dominant hen to start crowing. Chickens are flock animals and really do need other chickens. Think about it. Everything in a chicken's world revolves around their social order. Everything. Eating- pecking order; preening - social, group activity; foraging - one takes look out; roosting - always as a group. Chickens are not wired to be alone. The crowing is likely stemming from being alone, stressed, and calling out for other chickens.

 

[Casper101Popcor]

My dominant hen 'crowed' in the morning, too. It was very annoying and let me say not very pleasant. She just wanted food

. Its not out the ordinary, I guess. I would try to socialize her, chickens are over social and need a friend. They are flocking creatures, so i would attempt to contact your nieghbor and try to work out the chicken situation. You probably want a barrier in between them at first, just in case.

 

[DarleneE]

I want sooooooo to get her another hen however I just don't know how to even go about it because first of all, I'd have to JUST DO IT!! On the sly I mean because my husband says NO MORE CHICKENS!! That's what he said until he got home and found these two baby chicks!! Lol
So it's doable, he'll get used to it.. However, I couldn't just put another chicken in with her. They'd have to see each other thru a fence at first and all that stuff and for that I will most definitely need help from my husband who obviously isn't going to be a happy camper. So this being said my only other option is to give her away to someone with more chickens. However, that's also upsetting to me because she's never been with anymore than just the other chicken and she's always been the head bird. If she goes into another flock she'll be at the very bottom and that's also going to be very stressful for her??? Also, I don't want to sound rude, but NOONE will care for her the way I do. I mean she's so spoiled she don't even know she's a chicken. I just HATE to give her away. I already lost one and I don't want to lose her!!! But I don't want her to suffer either so I'm sooooooo confused and upset here. I don't know what I should do.

 

[Casper101Popcor]

Its very unfortunate your husband is putting his foot down about the chickens. I've never been the convincing type, hopefully you are. I too hate giving chickens away, it makes me sad. They could also die from the stress of the transition. My own pullet went about three weeks without a friend when we gave our rooster away. Then we got her a friend . And about a week ago we gave our chickens away. I'm kind of lost for words in this situation. Unless you are very good at talking people into getting chickens, i don't know.

 

[DarleneE]

Also... IF i could get her another hen, what breed would work best with her being a Barred Rock. She can be pretty aggressive and used to peck and dominate our poor Easter Egger who just ADORED her?? When babies she even slept under this one's wing!! Yet then even with my poor EE not well she'd make it so difficult for her to even eat!! I had to take her out of their run just so my other baby could eat!! So she IS a dominant hen. I don't even know what age the hen must be??

I was wanting some Turkens?? I also love the Frizzles and Poliah and all those different kind of hens and honestly if I could get her a friend one of these types is what I'd want to get. What does everyone think about breeds and age for her playmate?? I also heard the Breda is an awesome chicken??

 

[Casper101Popcor]

Black Sex-Links seem to be strong-willed chickens, from what i've seen. Or Buff Orphingtons. Another option is just getting a rooster

. Just kidding. Mostly its just luck that you get a leveled chicken that can put up with your BR

 

[DarleneE]

How old should they be?? I mean how many weeks is it before a hen is full size I honestly can't remember from mine growing up when they were full grown??

 

[DarleneE]

Also how would I even go about finding adult chickens in my area??

 

[junebuggena]

You can buy started pullets from several hatcheries. Or you can check local craigslist ads or facebook buy/sell/trade pages.