Strange Occurrences at The Miniature Smallholding.
At the moment we have a group of chickens at the 5 month old mark and it's around this time that the cockerels start crowing. Sometimes it's earlier, but I usually hope for later. Because we are in a suburban area, once they start crowing they have to go, so when we hear them we go out and try to figure out which one it is.
When a cockerel first starts crowing it's not the full blown crow that it will develop into and very often sounds like something is in distress, which can be a bit alarming sometimes! This morning I heard a young rooster crow just as I was preparing breakfast. I'd hadn't put the adult roosters out yet, but there was still no mistaking an immature crow.
I reluctantly stepped outside to see if I could spot the offender. As I watched, instead of a crow coming from the boys enclosure I heard it coming from one of the other runs where there were hens and a couple of 3 month old roosters who are nowhere near ready for crowing and would have a high pitched crow, being so small, even if they were. I looked over at the run and saw a chicken on the fence. That, in itself, is no surprise, because roosters love to crow from high up. However, the chicken on the fence was Artemis, one of the araucana hens. Puzzled, I was about to look for the little roosters when she stretched forward and belted out an underdeveloped crow at the top of her lungs! As I stood there gobsmacked, one of the 5 month old cockrels replied and off she went again.
Artemis the Araucana hen. photo courtesy of @izzydawn
I am aware that hens will sometimes crow, but usually it's because they are in an all female flock and there's no rooster around. I can only imagine that with Roast still in his bedtime box (to muffle his morning crows) she felt that this young whipper snapper needed to be told that he wasn't about to replace her man. Another possibility is that she was feeling protective because there are youngsters in her run. Either way, she didn't crow again once Roast was out.
This is certainly a new turn of events and I'll have to keep an ear out for her. Let's hope she doesn't do this first thing in the morning, or she might need to find a new home. Fingers crossed she’ll be back to normal when the cockerels have all gone.
Maybe she was just missing her man and wanted him to get his lazy butt up and start work.
"Get out here and defend our virtue, so I don't have to!" 😆
This is so interesting. I haven't even been near to a hen, let alone knowing anything about them.
Bahahahaa hens crowing sound even funnier than young roosters crowing, and the amount of effort both put into those pathetic feeble noises is hilarious XD We had a hen that crowed for a little while and were never too worried about it bothering the neighbours as we have much noisier things going on (most notably the train, buses and hoons), she stopped on her own after a few days of us laughing at her, poor thing XD
Haha! So is the trick to shame her out of it?!
As much as I'd like to say yes I think she just stopped on her own XD She started up after we got rid of all of our roosters and stopped after the hens seemed to work themselves out.
Fingers crossed once these roosters are gone she won't feel the urge again.
so interesting! i didn't know females would crow (for the reasons you listed) or even could do so. thanks for teaching me something new!
I know someone whose hen crows when she has chicks. She's in a rooster free flock, so maybe she's trying to bluff that they're rooster protected.
Been a while I saw you here stranger. I've never heard hens crow either, they must be part of the new wave feminisia....lol
My time on here will probably be sporadic for a bit. More commenting than blogging at the moment.
you all really should learn intutive nature commincation aka telepathy if u really want 2 know whats going on.... all beings are more intelligent then brainwashing schools teach....
Most definitely. They are more intelligent than most of us realise, which is why I try to share my experiences. Things aren't always as you'd expect.
so interesting