When a Hen Crows
This is quite unusual but it appears one of my hens has begun crowing. I’ve tried to tell myself that she does not sound like an actual rooster, except she does. She sounds like a young rooster that has not mastered the varied tones and undulations of a mature rooster’s crow. I have been racking my brain to understand why. My first thought is that given that birds tend to be so very territorial and given that many birds vocalize first thing in the morning to indicate territory for the day, it is possible that my all female flock needs a representative that can fulfill the duty.
It has always been Odile that has vocalized more than the others but it was the irritating sound of a grinding rusty wheel. Many hens make a “cluckcluckcluck squawk!” when they want something. This is called a gakel-call. When a hen does it I can notice her beak moving but she does not hold a stance. With this new and emboldened crow, Odile, picks a higher spot in the yard (which has been a boulder beneath my bedroom window) with her chest out, neck elongate, head up, hackle feathers standing on end, and wing flapping at the end of the crow. Just like a rooster.
I have been reading up (references below) on hen behavior to better understand what I am witnessing. It appears that this could be a phenomenon called spontaneous sex reversal. It does indeed occur but its causes are not completely understood. It seems it could have been an issue with Odile oviducts that resulted but I do not believe this is her cause as she has continued to lay eggs. Several articles discuss the occurrence. The most fascinating aspect is that this hen is actually developing secondary sex characteristics of a rooster and apparently, while not common, has the potential to develop ovotestis which could in turn produce viable sperm.
I went out to the coop with a flashlight when the “girls” went to sleep this evening. I wanted to check Odile’s face against her sister’s as they were very difficult to tell apart, expect for their tails. I wanted to see if Odile’s comb is now turgid and erect as a male’s and if she has more pronounced wattles. Perhaps her comb in the subtlest way is more fanned out. Right now, I cannot tell. Below are pictures of Odile from 2006 and 2008. Other than being much plumper I’m not sure. Her comb does seem a tad more pronounced over her beak and her wattles hanging down more.
I would like very much to keep Odile in the flock as this is a pretty interesting development. Naturally, I am concerned with the noise. There are only a few offenses that I am not willing to tolerate from my chickens: real property damage (breaking into the garden does not count); severe aggression (blood and/or small children involved); and excessive noise levels. As much as I think roosters improve flock health, I would not acquire one for their obvious loud crowing and the Oakland ordinance against it. The last thing I want is for my neighbors to think I have shucked the law for my backyard experimentation. I haven’t neighbors, I really haven’t. It is just that my hen is spontaneously turning into a cockrel. This is too weird.
Chan, S. T. H. 1970. Natural Sex Reversal in Vertebrates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 259(828):,59-71.
Forbes, T. R. 1947. The crowing hen. Early observations on spontaneous sex reversal in birds. Yale J. Biol. Med. 19:955-970.
Jacob, J. and Mather, F.B. 2000. Sex Reversal in Chickens. Department of Animal Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS050
Simkiss, K., Luke, G. Behnam, J. 1996. Female chromosomes in cockerel ejaculates. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 263:1245-1249
One of ours is now crowing — full-out hen crows.
As soon as I identify the culprit, she’s going to be my first experiment in chicken slaughter, I’m afraid. I can’t risk a call to the police from a neighbor just because one hen has decided that what this little flock really needs is a rooster.
Sigh. I hope the kids are understanding.
August 18th, 2008 at 7:50 pmAt least you haven’t been presented with a bill from Odile for her…er, his therapy and planned sexual reassignment surgery yet.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:39 pmWhen I was a child we had a hen that crowed. Our stabndard joke was that we could not decide if it was a crowing hen or an egg-laying rooster
September 6th, 2008 at 7:38 pmI live in Antioch, Ca and we have a hen that has been crowing like a rooster for a while. I think our neighbor is ready to kill us. My husband has kidded me about putting her in the oven. Not funny.We are not sure what to do yet….I glad to see we are not alone.
July 28th, 2009 at 3:36 pmWe have two hens (and two young ones in the basement…), and the dominant one tries to crow. She also attacks me when I let them out in the AM, and when I change their feed and water. I think it is because there is no rooster to protect the flock, and she is filling that void. I think that if I got rid of her, eventually another hen would take that dominant place in the pecking order…
We live in in South S.F., and many of the older residents remember when everyone around here had chickens. They were actually sad when we got rid of our real rooster due to his crowing!
Nice website, by the way!
April 30th, 2010 at 4:59 pmI have 2 roosters and when I went outside to put a chick back into the pen I found that two of my hens were crowing. I’m not sure what to think about that.
May 26th, 2010 at 11:50 amMy sister and I are experiencing the same problem with our hens. I have 3 and she has 2 and we live on different sides of Australia and we’re both hearing that strangled pathetic attempt at crowing. I’m wondering if mankind hasnt played around with the breeding that much to the point that this is what we’re getting these days – gender confused chickens!
January 23rd, 2011 at 5:38 amI have a white Americana ben that is the youngest and lowest on the pecking order and when she started to lay eggs recently she also started to crow like a rooster. I bought her at 7 weeks old and has always been freaked by simple things. She has been traumatized where she came from. She is the largest chicken now and may not be the lowest on the on the pecking order anymore but she is the loner.
March 5th, 2011 at 1:48 pmOne of my hens has just started crowing. We have a rooster but he ate a giant rubber band (the kind that’s attached to a was tennis ball so you can hit it and it comes back) and he damaged his vocal cords. Pippi, the hen, is an Auricana/Wyandotte cross. She’s the only hen we’ve hatched and managed to get to adulthood without her being eaten by a snake or goanna. She is about three years old, still lays eggs and was broody when the crowing started.
March 27th, 2011 at 12:30 amWe have 4 bantam hens, the eldest 2 are a golden Fayoumi and a tiny but feisty Pekin and the little ones a silver fayoumi and a Welsumer Bantam, in flock pecking order. Hetty, the golden Fayoumi, regularly crows exactly like a cockrel and has a very prominent comb and wattles. A vet told us we had a beautiful cockrel!
May 20th, 2011 at 2:34 pmShe’s also our best layer with 6-7 eggs a week, the silver Dopey is much bigger, but submits to the two dominant hens, us and even passing aircraft if they fly low enough. She only clucks when she has laid an egg or if the broody Pekin Pecky won’t let her into the coop.
But the noisiest of the lot is the one at the bottom of the pile: Houdini has a dreadful voice and is so loud we can hear her when she’s shut up and all our windows are shut! And she shrieks for at least half an hour every morning unless I chase her around the garden, even food won’t distract her as she doesn’t seem to need as much as the others and can get back to her “singing” after a couple of minutes… If anyone knows some remedy (short of force-feeding her giant rubber bands) I’d be VERY grateful as I spend most of my weekends standing guard in the garden instead of having the odd lie-in or bath or even a relaxing breakfast to prevent my husband committing bloody murder!!
Hi Susanne,
May 20th, 2011 at 3:00 pmThank you for your comment. I wish I had a suggestion for you. When my hen started this I was really concerned. I live in a densely populated urban area. So loud noises don’t go over well. I surmised that since she had not done this when she was with her flock all day, maybe it was being separated that made her feel on guard and crow like a boy. I put her back with the girls and she stopped immediately. She’s never done it again. While my other birds make some noises every now and again, snacks usually stop that. Please let me know if you find something that works!
-Esperanza
One of my two-year old hens has started doing the same thing. She’s not consistent every day, but seems to like to attempt a crow around 7:30am (it’s extremely loud, but really just two notes…not a full-blown crow), when she’s running around in the yard with the other two girls before I go to work and before they’re locked back up. She stretches her neck, flaps her wings and belts out 6-8 of them. I have neighbors fairly close, so it could become a problem. My only recourse so far has been to chase her into the house and then try to pick her up and hold her until she stops (she seems to like that, so I many only be reinforcing her bad behavior). All three hens are very interactive with us (i.e. spoiled), so they’ve learned to vocalize to get what they want. My next trick will be to lock the ‘crower’ into the broody buster cage in the shed in the morning before I go to work and see if I can break her of this terrible habit. She’s a pet, so getting rid of her isn’t an option. Frustrating!
August 22nd, 2011 at 6:18 pmWe have a hen (we hope) with a big comb like a roosters. If she starts crowing. Sadly, chop.
September 25th, 2011 at 1:43 amYup I too have a crowing hen. She’s a silver laced wynadotte and started crowing when our dominate flock hen died (sudden chicken death). I have three hens born this year and Poppy born last year and after Tikka died (born in 2009) Poppy just decided to be the ‘man’ about the place. Still behaves like a hen but hasn’t laid an egg in ages (she is moulting though so she wouldn’t be). I like the crowing but i sure hope she goes back to laying eggs. I’m in the Hayward hills and unincorporated and my neighbors all miss our roosters too.
October 22nd, 2011 at 3:15 pmmy hen margrite was a hen when we got her but when we got rid of her boy friend 2nd lutennit she started to crow. and we have 2 guinea hens and what would we do if they crowed im way to attatched to them and they are spoiled. so when they go in the neighbors yard which he has bird feed out he chases them away and this is when im at school and he is so mad at me what should i do they can all fly and is it normal for chickens to be like as smart as a person
December 5th, 2011 at 11:07 pmWell, I’m glad to report we still have all 4 girls!!
Hetty has just decided that as Spring has arrived, she’d behave like a hen in the hope of attracting a rooster, so she’s only crowed a couple of times this year.
Houdini is still in “winter mode”, chatting to the others by quiet clucks, but as she should come into lay soon I’m expecting a repeat performance of last year.
At least the Fayoumi seem to have settled in properly and don’t try to escape anymore (last year Hetty was returned by a contrite neighbour with 2 dogs, minus feathers front and back! Didn’t stop her crowing for more than a couple of weeks and seems rather drastic…)
February 26th, 2012 at 1:48 pmI also have a crowing hen. A white leghorn that’s about 4 months old. We had a rooster for a little while but had to get rid of him because of the noise ordinances here in Berkeley, and I was a bit shocked when one of my hens started crowing at dawn after he was gone.
If anyone can come up with some solutions about what to do to quiet a crowing hen, I’d love to hear them. She’s really starting to annoy my neighbors.
March 8th, 2012 at 2:38 pm