My LBOEGB hen is crowing and I want to know why.

[Jharper]

Okay, so lately I separated all my birds by breed and I have two blue and a lemon blue hen together and my lemon blue hen that I've had over a year now is trying to crow or is crowing.

Here she is crowing. I've heard they will try to take over the roosters role and start doing that kind of stuff. She's also been molting and has stopped "squatting" when I pick her up. If I get a little game rooster to go with her do you think it will stop?

 

[Judy]

Yes, when there is no cock bird in the flock, sometimes one hen will make a sort of crowing noise as well as get on the backs of other hens. This is a dominance gesture in this case. Often this hen will also stop laying. And usually if you bring a male into the flock, the hen starts acting like a hen again. I've had this happen twice. One of the hens had a pretty realistic sonding crow; the other, a funny imitation.

 

[Jharper]

Yes, when there is no cock bird in the flock, sometimes one hen will make a sort of crowing noise as well as get on the backs of other hens.  This is a dominance gesture in this case.  Often this hen will also stop laying.  And usually if you bring a male into the flock, the hen starts acting like a hen again.  I've had this happen twice.  One of the hens had a pretty realistic sonding crow; the other, a funny imitation. 

Okay, because when she was with my big rooster she was acted like a little hen and laid eggs, but now she stopped laying and is crowing. I haven't seen her try to mount the other one.

 

[Judy]

Just as roosters often mate all or most of the hens, even though we may only see them mate a few hens, this crowing hen is probably demonstrating her dominance with most or all the others.

A non-dominant roo is usually careful about his mating, making every effort to mate only when the dominant roo isn't looking or is far away, to avoid getting punished. People may tend to think he isn't mating at all, and he may also crow little or at all for the same reason. One reason this happens is, when the human is around, to him that's just another threat, another dominant roo for him to watch his step around. They're kind of funny, really, in these "games" they play, in the way their society works.