9 week old 'pullet' crowing??

[TaylorChicks]

Do pullets/hens crow?? This is our first time with chickens and the oldest of our girls is about 9 weeks old. We heard one of our chickens crowing this morning! Not a full 'cockadoodledoo' but a crow anyway!

We really hope she is not a HE! So my question is how common is it for girls to crow?

Thanks!

 

[nbenevento]

Hens will at times take on some characteristics of a rooster but that seems pretty young to be the case. 9 weeks is also slightly young for a cockerel to start crowing but is still possible. Do you have a current picture of this chicken? If not, does it have a lot of red in the face? Does it have a red comb and or waddles?

 

[thehackleguy]

Hens will indeed crow, however it is not common. Usually they have other rooster-like developments like spurs and enlongated tails.

 

[TaylorChicks]

We aren't sure exactly which one it was, but we have 2 9 week old chickens and then the rest are 7 weeks old. None of them have a lot of red. I was just thinking it was one of the older ones. Here they are, last week. Their combs may be slightly redder this week and a little more waddle, but nothing that says "I'm a ROOSTER!!"

 

[chooks4life]

Why do so many people say 'waddles', lol, that's what ducks and geese do! It's 'wattles'. Agree with the other people who have replied. Also the spurs/crowing/mating-with-other-chickens-like-a-rooster thing is more common in layer breeds as far as my experience has been. (Some hens will mate with a rooster from on top like he's the hen. What a noisy complaint the roosters have about it, lol!)

The one on the right seems to me to have rooster type neck feathering/hackles. Also if it's got that, there should be those fancy rooster wing feathers starting to show, also on its rump, and possibly the tail too would be starting to grow some fancy ones.

Best wishes.

 

[TaylorChicks]

Thanks for the info! I will try to get better photos later of my girls, so you can see the feathers better.

So at this age...'wattles' would be larger and redder, and fancy feathers would start to show if it was a rooster?

I'll have to go look at all of them in a little while here and see who it could be with the mysterious 'crow' this morning!

 

[chooks4life]

The age the fancy feathers show is dependent on nutrition, how ill the chook has gotten and how often, and the genetics. I have had a chook as young as a few weeks all rooster feathered and mating with his mother... lol? and another who was at egg laying age before he decided at last that he was male and would indeed grow the necessary headgear and feathers. But I do think right now you'll find those rooster feathers if it is a 'he', just going from the neck and face. You may have to part the feathers on his rump or flanks and shoulders to find the fancy ones, but they're pretty obvious when you do see them. Best wishes.

 

[aggiemae]

One of our spring 2013 SLW was a rooster and he crowed at about 8 weeks and was crowing loudly by 10 weeks. He crown (actually its a rose) and waddles where not much more developed than the SLW hen but his legs where much thicker and his tail was up high much of the time as opposed to a hen who tail was/is often down. Before he even crowed there was lots of chest bumping and it wasn't just with him but six of the eight chicks in the whole junior flock. It did turn out he was the only rooster The bumping stopped as soon had he went to his now home. I got lucky and found a farmer in need of a new rooster and I just heard he is already doing his "job" at 16 weeks!

As for crowing hens, we actually have one but she didn't start crowing until she was much older.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Whether or not a hen holds her tail up is due to genetics as well, though roosters are more likely to do it as a show-off posture. One way I can sex a very tiny chick pretty reliably is to have a look when its first tail feathers are messy little stubs coming through its downy tail nub. A cockerel will usually have every little stub spread out as wide as he can, lol. My hens tend to also do that, but they do it at a later age.

 

[TaylorChicks]

Well I figured out who my mystery crower is! And I'm surprised to say it is neither of my two older chickens, but one of my babies! He's is only 7 weeks old but all signs point to ROOSTER!

He's a 7 week old EE chick and as he has started to really get his big boy feathers he has looked different than the other chicks. He's skinnier, but taller, has a bit of an attitude. He tries to "chest bump" the other chickens. As I look at his feathers he has coming in now along his back - they are bright orange. He will be pretty! He has changed so much in the past several weeks. It's amazing. We're a bit sad the she is a he, though. We really don't have room for a rooster, as we only have 7 chickens total. Now we have a decision to make as far as his future. We may try to 'rehome' him, or we may cull him for meat, or...we may separate him and keep him. Is that an option? If he's not aggressive toward people, maybe he could just free range around the yard! This is another thing we will need to learn about in our chicken journey!

Here he is! His name is Eggcellent.

Eggcellent at one week old.



Eggcellent today - my how they change so fast!