Rooster or Hen???

[KWoodardRN]

I have a flock of 15 chickens. I have a mix of Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orphs. One of my Buffs really looks and acts like a rooster. Has the long neck feathers and the fanned out tail feathers and is noticeably larger then the rest. He/She holds the other buff hens down to "mate" with them and acts like a rooster puffing out chest and all. My concern is that I have never heard it crow. Is this normal for this breed? I did have 2 RIR roosters that crowed all the time but we have not heard this one crow. My husbands uncle told him that this was an "alpha hen" that portrayed a rooster to let the others know she was the boss. Anyone heard of this or had anything like this happen?

 

[Kelsie2290]

You might want to post pictures of the bird in question. A dominant hen can take over the role and act a lot like a rooster if there is no rooster in the flock. But if it has the male feathering etc, you probably have a slow maturing roo. Some roosters crow more than others, and some start up pretty late, orps tend to be slow maturing anyhow. Also if you had the two RIR roosters at the same time the orp may have been the low rooster in the pecking order.

 

[roostersandhens]

Please post a picture, thanks! PS:

 

[KWoodardRN]

Thanks I will post a pic soon. No I had the RIR roosters last summer before I got all the hens and my dog killed both of them last yr. Just got these buffs in the fall and winter of 2013. Thought I had all hens but had noticed that this one was larger then the rest and the feathering was different and then was cleaning out coop and noticed that it was jumping on the backs of the other buff hens and looked like mating with them. But like I said we have never heard it crow so my husband was saying that its not a rooster.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

What color is the tail? RIR boys have green tails, so they're easy to tell at a glance. Does he look like the bird in the back of the pic, or more like the lady in front?