A hen can crow like a rooster.  I am not making this up and it isn’t an old wives tale.  It doesn’t happen in a regular flock of chickens with a rooster present, but in small backyard flocks with just female chickens, although it is rare, it is not unheard of.  Yesterday, someone on Meet Up: Los Angeles Chicken Enthusiasts, was asking for advice on what she should do about her crowing hen.  I personally have had two different female chickens that have crowed so I had lots of advice to share.  When the first one started, I initially freaked out because I never heard of a hen being able to crow.  I tried to learn everything I could about why our hen was crowing and how to fix the behavior. 

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Why is a hen crowing?

Living really close to neighbors and in a city whose code reads “No Crowing Fowl…” not just “No Roosters Allowed” meant we could not just ignore the problem. Through the research I did, I learned that just because she crowed, it didn’t necessarily mean she had gone through some kind of spontaneous gender change.  However, there were some sources that said crowing hens probably have a tumor or damaged ovaries. That probably wasn’t the issue with either of our hens because each laid eggs just fine. 

In cases like ours, it is due to the flock situation.  A mature (and top of the pecking order) hen may take on the role of the rooster, protecting and leading, including making the customary sounds, albeit, not near as polished sounding like a male chicken. The sound a hen makes when she is crowing is not the same as an egg song, which can be loud, but sounds and looks nothing like crowing.  I have owned chickens long enough to tell the difference between an egg song and a crow, including who out of my chickens is singing without even looking.    My two different hens retained the ability to lay eggs, never got any kind of rooster plumage, and neither ever fertilized an egg, as far as we know. 

What did we try to stop the hen from crowing?

Early morning crowing is not okay in the suburbs.  We did as much as we could to get the hen to stop…

• Reduce the hen’s dominance in a flock.  This was a drastic one, but it worked for our hens.  By sending my Penguin across the street to live in the other flock, she instantly was no longer top hen, and stopped crowed just as quickly.  I missed her, but I would go over and visit still.  Basically, if you find you have a crowing hen, look into giving her to someone else that already has an established flock.  However, please be fair and warn them a head of time why you are giving her away.
• Give the hen a bath. Make sure it is warm enough day for her to dry off ourdoors okay. This is humiliating for the hen and can reduce the crowing for a day or two, but it is not a permanent fix. I also give baths to broody hens to get them to snap out of it. This was what we did with our first crowing hen.
• Wait it out for a moult.  Some flock owners have reported that a moult fixes the problem.  Penguin went through an awful looking moult right after the relocation across the street.  From what I understand, the hormonal change that goes with moulting helps to correct it.

What worked best with our crowing hens?

• The most effective way to stop our hen crowing was to put her in a plastic pet carrier * in the garage to sleep at night and returned her to the coop once we were confident the neighbors were probably up. Bringing the hen into the house would work too, but then she would wake up my hubby. That would be worse than waking the neighbors!
• If you decide to put the hen in a pet carrier, I highly recommend using one that can be hosed out. The hen will be leaving droppings in it over night and cleaning it daily is a good idea. Keeping it clean prevents foot problems later on down the road. No one wants to deal with a Bumble Foot infection on top of crowing. Fabric carriers might take longer to dry out. These kinds of carriers are also helpful to isolate a sick or injured bird temporarily, or to transport cats and small dogs. I use one to keep my tortoise in during the winter. They work for more than just Hens that crow.
• Limiting head room to stretch out their neck up HIGH in the pet carrier prevents them from crowing.  When a hen sings an egg song, she doesn’t need to stretch her neck.

Other Options:

There were additional things that other people suggested to us to get our hen to stop crowing, but we did not consider for either of our hens.

• Have the Hen wear a Rooster No Crowing Collar *
• Get a Rooster and the behavior in the hen will stop. Not a good option in an urban setting!
• Make Chicken Dinner. Again, not really an option in an urban setting
• Force her into a moult.

Update:

Penguin, the crowing hen, returned to Hanbury House with a tiny brood of silkie chicks at the end of summer.  Once she was done raising the young chicks, she retook her spot at the top of the flock.  I observed how she was acting with the other ladies in the flock, and I noticed she was slowly getting domineering with them once again. I am sure you can guess what happened last Sunday.  Yup.  Penguin started crowing again.  I had really hoped she wouldn’t crow anymore, but I kind of figured she might.  My flock of bantam Cochins are so docile, it is easy for Penguin to take over with her charming, outgoing personality.  Therefore, sending her away for a break was only a temporary fix.  She has only crowed twice lately, but it was enough to land her back in the garage every night in the pet carrier.

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