My Isa Brown 'hen' is crowing... a LOT.

[wheresmypeeps]

My Isa Brown 'hen' is crowing... a LOT. How can I tell if she is really a he, as this behavior is not very useful in keeping our clandestine chickens, well, clandestine. The males were white, and we traded them for hens, so I thought we were all set. Then four of the five brown 'hens' got bigger than the fifth one and all started acting rather rooster-like and aggressive. So much so that we had to eliminate three of them. Now the other larger brown 'hen' is crowing very well and frequently. We are not allowed chickens here, so this is not good, along with being annoying. Is there a chance that this hen is a roo and not really an Isa Brown? I was told the dominant hen can start doing a rather sorry 'crow', but this crow sounds real.

 

[Daisy8s]

Could you contact the breeder where you got them and get their advice?

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

if you bought them from some that bred an Isabrown roo over Isabrown hens the chicks will not be sexlink anymore, so you can get brown roosters and white hens. Sounds to me like thats what happened.

 

[HEChicken]

Isa Browns are sex-linked so there shouldn't be any issue with determining gender at hatch. Do you have pics of them? The "rooster-like and aggressive" behavior you mentioned may have just been them sorting out pecking order. Were they kind of jumping up and chest bumping each other? If so, that is done by boys and girls alike to decide who is dominant over who. Occasionally a dominant hen will crow if there is no rooster around, and hens also make quite a bit of noise when singing the egg song, so if you are truly trying to be clandestine, it may not be possible to have them and have close neighbors and have the neighbors not know they are there (on the other hand, they are not nearly as noisy as a barking dog and are mostly silent at night).

 

[wheresmypeeps]

Hmmm... well no neighbors have complained yet with all the noisy egg-songs, but this coc-a-doodle-dooing is getting out of hand. Don't want to press my luck, as I do have some grumpy neighbors, but mostly nice. Here are a few pics...
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I bought the chicks at a farm supply store.

 

[Carolyn]

I regret to inform you that you are the frustrated owner of roos.

 

[StarLover21]

Yeah, and those are buff orpingtons, or somethign like that, no isa browns....

 

[wheresmypeeps]

I regret to inform you that you are the frustrated owner of roos.

Can you tell from the pics?

 

[HEChicken]

I agree - Buff Orpington roos - no doubt. Yes, the pics help out a lot. The large combs/waddles, the pointy hackle/saddle feathers. Even the coloration is a giveaway since BO hens don't have the darker feathers - they are a more uniform buff color.

 

[wheresmypeeps]

Yeah, and those are buff orpingtons, or somethign like that, no isa browns....

Wow. Seriously?! This explains a lot.