Why has my hen begun crowing?!

[littleredhen]

:/One of my three hens began crowing a few months ago. (I have all hens.) She is a barred rock and the dominate bird in the flock. Why is this?
Also, at what age do hens stop laying? Mine apparently have, though I thought they would go longer.

 

[peepkeeper]

She's crowing because she's a rooster.

Depends on the bird, generally around 4 or 5 years, but some go a lot longer.

 

[littleredhen]

I'm pretty sure she is a hen. Also the "crow" is not loud and clear like a rooster, but more like a "squak". She stands up on a bale or something and throws it out like she were crowing, yet its not that loud or pronounced. I have thought that since I don't have a rooster and she is dominate, that she is doing this to accert her dominate place in the group. Could this be???

 

[justusnak]

She is definately taking on the Rooster role. How old is she? Have they ALL stopped laying? Maybe they are moulting?? Has it been really hot? This too will slow production. Maybe there is an egg thief? Like a snake getting the eggs???

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
Has this hen been laying eggs?

 

[littleredhen]

My crowing hen is about 6 years old and stopped laying probably a year or more ago. It is very hot here and her sister hen from the same batch is molting now. As they are so old, I'm not expecting them to lay anymore. It's the crowing I am curious about. She just started it a few months ago.

 

[littleredhen]

By the way, the bird in my photo is the one in question.

 

[eggcetra_farms]

That age sounds right to me to stop egg laying. Right now I'm having a curious thing with my chicken. She's a year old this month (I believe) and is currently moulting. Since she's been in her moult she's been very confrontational and aggressive. I thought maybe she's just touchy and not feeling herself due to the moulting, but now her behavior in the last couple of days has become even more puzzling. She's begun to drop her wing and strut like a rooster. I was going to try and get a good look at her the other day when she fluffed up and flew at my face. It's almost as if she's becoming a rooster.

By the way, I've heard of several cases of crowing hens. She's just taking on the rooster role.

 

[mourninglory]

Well some human females grow a few whiskers later on. Maybe this is part of chicken menopause?! (No offense meant, but could that be part of it?) Maybe lose of estrogen and/or increase of testosterone? I'm asking the experts here on that one.

For the younger hen it sounds like a dominance thing.