Hello Wishful

I have a neighbour who has two adult girls, one of which definitely crows, so I think Aunty Sylvia knows what she's talking about.

Jen

Wishful,

I also have a dominant hen who crows - it doesn't sound quite right but there it is!

When we were raising ours from chicks we did in all the ones we thought were roosters (looking for spurs on the feet, crowing and all round aggressive behaviour) and lo and behold one of the ones we killed (which was crowing the most) was a definate female. In future I wouldn't take the crowing as a sign of sex.

I don't know about crowing as two of my young crowers are definately roosters. On ordinary types of chooks, the ones that develop tail feathers first are generally hens and the late tail developers usually male, but this is when they are still fluffy chicks.

I agree with Aunt Sylvia too, I'd certainly wait for more definite signs of masculinity before I got out the axe!!

thanks. I did try googling, but couldn't find any info on dominant hens in small backyard flocks. Until a) someone starts crowing (as opposed to gargling) or b) the neighbours start complaining or c) someone grows spurs, big tail and comb...... I'll just wait and see.

Oh... and I'll reassure my cousins they don't have to sign Aunty Sylvias committal papers just yet...... ROFL!

Hens do crow - I know because when I was a child we had chooks and one of the hens decided she would crow (don't remember how old she was). My (superstitious) Mother was aghast and said "A whistling woman and a crowing hen is neither good for God nor men". The other variation of this saying ends with "...will always come to no good end". Just thought this might be of some interest.
Ross.
PS: Soon after it's crowing, we ate the chicken.
PPS: None of the women in my family whistle.

lol Ross - I'd never heard that saying before!

Isn't 2 months a bit young to be doing this? is there anything I can do to dissuade her - e.g. if I keep her in a box in the laundry each night for the next month (dark), will that stop it? I don't want the neighbours to start complaining.... but I'm also afraid that if I get rid of this one, then the next in line 'dominant' one will just start crowing in her place!

Does she sound like "The Freak" from Prisoner?. Dead giveaway that.
Does she carry a truncheon?.
Very dominant behaviour that.

hmmmmmm......

looking at chooks today (after crowing from 4am to 5am for the last week) and count them...1 2,3,4...FOUR.... little pimple type dots appearing 2-3cm above the back toe on all 4 chooks. SPURS!!!!!

so....

anyone handy to the north side of Brisbane want a 2 month old black Australorp rooster...or two? free to a good home..... come to that, free to anyone who wants them (I don't really care if you want to eat them yourself)

Aunty Sylvia is in BIG trouble now.... my daughter is devastated... what are the odds of getting 100% 4 out of 4 roosters?

Don't the ladies have vestigial spurs? Not that I know anything about ladies and spurs, I hasten to add!!!

Ladies, spurs, Oh yeah Oh yeah
sorry
Carry on

oz :P *pokes tongue out and then ignores*

Ray - I really don't care anymore - I'm a shift worker, don't normally get to bed till about 2am, then as a single Mum of 4 kids aged 3-13, it's not uncommon to be woken up by one of them for some reason or other. I'm up again by 6.30am 6 days a week to get kids off to school, sport, whatever. This morning I was woken at 4.12am by crowing. By 4.13am I was downstairs kicking the chook tractor every time the bird crowed. Now, I KNOW that is childish, unreasonable, stupid behaviour, and I KNOW that I would tear strips off one of my kids if they were doing the same thing. But I have had 11.5 hours sleep in the last 3 days, and I was really looking forward to getting a straight 8 hours this morning.

I don't care what is crowing - hen or rooster - if it crows it goes.

Sorry - I don't mean to offend anyone, and I really don't want to be sent to Coventry by all the wonderful people here in this forum, because I'm a 'bad' person. I've been coming to this forum for nearly 2 years now, and I love reading everyone's posts (even if I don't often reply).

I just really, REALLY need some sleep!

Don't know about the crowing, but at 2 months old, you may very well have a young rooster there. Now I WOULD question Auntie Sylvia's knowledge on chooks because CHOOKS DON'T FLY AWAY. When did you last sight a flock of chooks flying overhead (unlike a friends flock of geese who were kept in a tiny, roofless enclosure, and went missing one day, to be seen circling overhead that evening, and making a nice neat landing back in their enclosure - now THEY needed a wing clipped!)
To stop a rooster from crowing - set the upper most perch just under the roof of the pen, so that the bird can sit there comfortable, but when he stretches out his neck to crow he hits his head on the ceiling. Sort of - "er..a....roo...a...ouch"
There are other ways to stop a rooster crowing of course ;-)

And just another thought - perhaps your "cwaaaka-cwaka-waa" is a wattle bird? Although I would describe it more as a "chuck..cuck...a...wuck"

thanks sparaxis

This afternoon the 2 Australorps were delivered to the local produce shop. My daughter and her father took them - apparently they just dropped them and run (they didn't even try to barter then for a hen or feed!). I don't know if the man at the produce store is now planning roast rooster for Sunday dinner.... but at least the neighbours aren't going to complain!

now... lets hope the two white ones don't start crowing.....

Hens don't crow, ever. They are young roosters. 2 months is too young to sex chickens. This happens all the time, people are convinced their hens are crowing. They never do, ever.

I was given five chickens about six weeks of age and they all started crowing.Now I have a farm but I also like my sleep so the five little roosters were sent to another chook owner and swapped for five slightly larger point of lay hens.
No crowing equals happy farmer.
The lady on the next property has peacocks,now if you want noise,keep them.

Calthrop - up until 2 months ago, there were peacocks on the acreage next door to us. While we have only been in this house 2 years, before that we lived just 200m away - the peacocks have been on this property since I was a kid, 30 years at least. This acreage has been cleared for unit development - 44 units instead of dam, trees, ducks, geese, eels, turtles, kookaburras, horses, one cow, 2 sheep a host of other birds (all with full nests when they levelled the trees 3 weeks ago) and peacocks. Bring back the peacocks - they are much better than this wasteland next to us now!

I got my first sleep in about 3 weeks without being woken by crowing. Call me nasty and selfish, but getting 5 hours sleep (between getting home from work and getting up to get kids off to school) is MUCH better than getting 3 hours sleep (being woken up at 4.12 am by whatever it was - rooster, hen, space alien - crowing!

Glad to hear you finally got a good night's rest! It's amazing what a good sleep does to ones mental and physical health! You did the right thing. Sleep is more important than some hens or roosters.

BTW, there is such a profession as a chicken sexer. But they work for big operations.

sparaxis - about the perch - the 'birds' (be they roosters or hens, it doesn't matter any more) were off their perch, standing on the ground to crow, so your suggesting of a higher perch wouldn't have worked in this case. Even the other hens were still huddled together on the perch, looking at them bleary eyed. I'm sure I heard one of them mutter "shut the f* up not even the kookaburras are up yet"..................though that may have been me in a bad temper, outside at 4.16am in the dawn light, but still with a torch to work out whether it was the black one with brown spots on its breast that was crowing, or the black on with brown spots on its wing that was crowing. After 4 morning of that, to verify that it was BOTH black ones crowing I'd not be surprised if I was talking to myself OR if the hen was talking to me LOL.

After checking out my chooks yesterday, don't think it is a rooster if it has spurs. My oldest hen is 6-7yrs old and has spurs 2cm long and my youngest, just started laying this week so definitely hens, have tiny lumps where the spurs would be.
I usually tell by combs developing earlier, longer tail feathers which grow more upright and then curved rather than straight out or down, glossier feathers around neck and generally taller more upright stance.

Wishful - I am sure it was the hens saying that. They are clever creatures. I forgot to feed mine one day, so fed them early the next morning. I knew I would have a busy day the next day, so i fed them again late that evening - I am sure one wide eyed hen was just about to say "But we've already been fed today" when another one nudged her, winked, and said "psst - don't let on".

The trouble now with a 44 unit development next door is.......44 sets of foundations being poured ,tradesmen with radios blaring etc etc.
I actually don't mind my neighbors peacocks ,obviously because they are not under my bedroom window.It is sad to think that you have such a development next door to you.Here's hoping you can maintain your patch of paradise.

My dh complains like mad at the magpies when they say 'hello, why aren't you up yet?' very early in the morning. Think what he'd be like with roosters going at it first thing in the morning in the next block :(

Wishful I think we all feel for you and like Calthrop said I too hope you can maintain your piece of paradise.

In a similar vein the house next door to us - a really old w/board - went up for sale last year and as they are larger than usual blocks I was sh........myself some developer would snap it up for units. Anything can get past our council so I was quite relieved when it turned out to be a family but this has turned to horror as the old place was torn down and we now have a monster in its place. Single storey yes but 35 squares of split level floorspace so there is only a small patch of land around the edges for their 3 children to play in.

Makes my heart break to see it rising up above the fence staring me in the face each time I go outside.

Cathy

Calthrop and cranethie2 - we are very upset by the deelopment next door - after felling scores of trees ( all full of nests with eggs and babies), emptying the dam (turtles, eels, ducks, geese) again, all with babies (they just scooped the eels and turtles out of the water and left them oin dry land to die) etc etc etc - we have now been told that nothing will be done for at least 12 months, as they have not been able to get council approval for their original plans, and so are going back to the drawing board. A development not too far away from us sat at this stage for nearly 3 years before they commenced building. We are really angry - they could have left the trees and wildlife to at least finish this spring breeding season!

I am still trying to juggle my 'organic' gardening with real life. There are some things that I draw the line at going 'organic' - the latest is a rat plague (from all the earthworks) - the rats liked the bait the council man left, but won't eat Ratsack or 2 other brands I have bought. The cane toads eat them though - not a total loss!!!!

I have read all postings with great amusement. I currently have seven hens, The first to arrive was Shea who is a grey speckled one it was a gift from a friend who was moving to Qld. She was laying, after about a month she was attempting to crow. (Note she does have spurs) We were then given two more birds another grey speckled one called Lola and a red speckled one named Lacey. Lacey started crowing almost straight away and was removed after trying to mount Shea (who had subsequently stopped crowing.) Lacey was removed and given to a friend. Coup returned to normal.

Then we picked up a couple of austral leghorn pullets. Things going great all were laying. Then Shea and Lola both got clucky. We purchased a dozen fertilised eggs and let them sit. We ended up with 10 chicks. One died after falling into the drink water. With nine left as they grew we observed the differences. We had 5 cockerels and 4 pullets. Cockerels removed, things back to normal.

Until now.... I got home after nightshift today to be informed that one of my hens has started crowing. I think I have done the full circle, now I have to leave and find out which one is crowing, is it Shea as she has done it before (all though it was over 2 yrs ago or is it Lola as she is the alpha chook and has very well developed droopy fleshy bits on her face. Hmmmm

Now I am upset that maybe I gave my 'hen' up too soon. I have a Black Australorp; about 2 1/2 to 3 months that did a 'sorta crow' this morning several times. I've been thinking it was a rooster & I can't have 'backyard roosters', so my neighbor living in the county took it this morning for his 'hens'. Some of the hens started their pecking order ordeal and by roosting time they were snug in the coop and 'my baby'was still in the doorway, even though 2 weeks ahead of the 14 hens my neighbor had.

I Googled your forum as DO HENS CROW? and have read all posts with great amusement. Keeping backyard chickens is a sensitive subject in Chicago; our city council has decided to "table the discussion" after meeting with fierce passion on both sides of the issue. Our current ordinance prohibits chickens "for food or sacrificial purposes" which seems to let the pets stay but discourages cockfighters (yes, they still exist, shamefully). But the Urban Farming Movement here is so strong that egg production is tolerated and even welcomed - go figure. I've kept hens one-at-a-time just for summertime pets, so a neighbor recently brought me a 'rescue chicken' she found with its feet bound in the middle of an alley. It's a lovely Rhode Island Red with a sweet personality, but imagine my horror when 'Rosalind' began crowing. Not the kind of attention one wants in the city! There are several suspicious cocks down the street who get lots of noise complaints (and expensive fines), so I assumed their crowing was exciting my hen. She hasn't got tail plumes nor spurs, but her comb is rather prominent. There she goes again. Her feet are ENORMOUS compared to the Bantams and Ameracaunas I've had before. I really couldn't guess at her age. She hasn't laid, but she's only been getting layer feed for a week. So far my immediate neighbors find her and her crowing quaint, but a few eggs would help that view, as well as my peace of mind!

So it turns out I have a laying bantam hen who likes to crow as well. Maude is mostly an Araucana, but we suspect she has a little Silkie in her as well, judging by the fluffy feet ;)

She has a friend, Daisy, who also lays well. We get two eggs like clockwork every day. In other words, there is zero doubt about whether or not Maude is a hen. She is.

Except for the bit where she crows. She started a couple of weeks ago (they're both about six months old), and to begin with it sounded like a small child pretending to be a rooster - not too loud, really just amusing more than annoying. But last weekend, she really let go and let out a full-bodied crow at 5:15am. And every day since then. Not so funny any more :(

We live in suburbia, and our council rules are that we can have enough chickens to provide eggs for the household (and no more), and definitely no roosters. We're surrounded by blocks of flats, so it's only a matter of time before we get a council person knocking on our door wanting to take away the 'rooster'.

Does anyone know of a way to stop her crowing, or am I going to have to pension her off to a friend in the country, and purchase another (hopefully non-crowing!) friend for Daisy?

Sometimes a hen comes along that will crow, Ive got one. She has faithfully laid an egg everyday for 2 years, yet crows whenever my rooster does. I figure God likes variety :)