Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: peter rooster on September 12, 2010, 11:40

Title: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: peter rooster on September 12, 2010, 11:40
Hi

Can hens crow? or make a sound in the morning :ohmy:?. I bought a marran hen with chicks when the cocks started to crow they were removed. I thought that left me with mother and four hens. They have not started to lay yet :( but for the last couple of mornings I have had the most awful noise not a crowing but a sound like a cockerel being throttled :wacko:. Have i got another rooster ( chicken nugget once in the freezer) or could it be a hen with a death wish. If a hen how do I stop it apart from another trip to the freezer!. Would blinds on the window help?
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: tesni on September 12, 2010, 11:47
if our chickens are aware of early light then they make an awful racket first thing - we keep them in the dark until it is a reasonable hour, esp on weekends, so they don't upset the neighbours.  if a hen's reproductive tract is diseased and her ovaries cease to work she can take on male characteristics and start to crow!  :ohmy: don't know of any remedies or if your chicken breed is known to be especially vocal, some are just noisy!  :D
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: bantam novice on September 12, 2010, 11:53
I've had a hen that started to crow and it sounded quite strangled to start with but then got louder as she learned.  ::)  I understand that if there is no cockerel with the flock the top hen can develop behaviours like crowing and guarding the perimeter.  I have  heard aswell that hens can turn into cockerels.  Can't advise what to do about it I'm afraid.  I'm sure someone more experienced will be along with comments.  In the meantime good luck!
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: New shoot on September 12, 2010, 18:56
I've got a hen who crows or tries to at least and she is head honcho.   She used to do it when I had my old rooster then stopped he died.  Now I have 2 new boys she has started again, but both boys turned on her this morning for doing it, so it might be short-lived phase.

If you've got no rooster and your hens are crowing that might be difficult to stop.  Excluding light from the house will certainly help to at least keep them quiet until you let them out  :)
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: peter rooster on September 12, 2010, 22:28

Hi

Thanks already done that today so fingers croosed for a good nights and morning sleep. When they are good they are good when they are bad boy oh boy do they give you trouble and just for good fresh eggs.
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: peter rooster on September 13, 2010, 19:51
Hi

Looks to have worked got a good nights sleep with now noise from the girls. :D
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: bantam novice on September 13, 2010, 20:36
Sounds like a good plan.  I am thinking of getting a cockerel to run with my girls and keeping the coop dark until they are let out in the morning may stop him crowing at 4 in the morning in the summer.   B&B guests don't always understand being woken at that time!
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: peter rooster on September 13, 2010, 22:51
The woman who lives at the end of my garden said I could not keep chickens :ohmy: as she was not allowed anything other than dogs or cats. I pointed out my bungalow was build in 1932 was free hold with no restrictions on what I can keep :tongue2:. I only have 1/3 of a acre but it is enough for a few hens next to the veg garden. She also complained that my compost heaps were attracting rats, I pointed out that putting scraps on a bird table ontop of decking would make a perfect home for rats. Having stables and a farm within 100 yards ment we would always get rats in the autum when frosts came and to get traps etc she called the enviromental health people because she had seen a rat on her bird table.
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: henamoured on September 13, 2010, 23:29
At least the Enviro Health will tell her the facts about rats ie they usually have a 'run', so often are not nesting anywhere near where they are sighted.
There's always someone who delights in telling you can't do something isn't there... :mad:
I can't imagine how anyone would feel entitled to complain of a compost heap in someone else's garden. Your neighbour should live next to mine who does his weeding with a flame thrower, seriously! :ohmy:
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: bantam novice on September 14, 2010, 10:51
In this country I have heard that you are never further than ten feet from a rat on average!  If she's worried about rats she can trap them or get a Jack Russel Terrier or a good ratting cat since she is allowed those! ::)  How about offering her some free-range eggs? She might start so see a few advantages to keeping chooks  :)
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: peter rooster on September 14, 2010, 11:58
I have the girls on a paved area for the run and it is paved under the coop with it lifted 12 inch off the ground so room to have traps set under the shed. Hopefull rats should not be a problem with the hens. I find it superising how many people feed birds and think rats will not pick up food at night, she use to just throw it on the floor. :ohmy:
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: EJCTM on September 14, 2010, 12:11
I have a hen who "bakaaaaaacks" really loudly in the mornings. I overheard the neighbour swearing at the chickens the other day! Thanks for the tip about keeping them in the dark, I will put together a curtain for their window now.

I was thinking of replacing the coop roof with a PVC one to increase the light for them in the winter - I will now not be doing this after all!
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: jinty1911 on September 14, 2010, 20:47
We just got our 3 hens on sunday and my neighbour told everyone apart from us that, if they made a noise and woke her up she would go to the council.  3 nights later and not a peep out of the girls. But she was complaining this morning that the wind had woken her up at 3.30am. There's not many people to report that to is there?  :nowink:
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: peter rooster on September 15, 2010, 00:47
A few years ago a neighbour rang me up several times complaining my dog was barking. I had never heard her bark at night. She finally rang me at night and told me to go and listen as it was barking. I knew it was not my dog she had died a week :( earlier still insisted it was my dog >:(.
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: Swing Swang on September 15, 2010, 07:43
>I can't imagine how anyone would feel entitled to complain of a compost heap in someone else's garden.

I can.

In fact my neighbour did, not only did I fully appreciate his point, but I relocated the heap to maintain harmony. It's not worth falling out over something as trivial as a pile of compost.

Compost heaps do attract vermin. Where this has an impact on neighbours, in areas of high-density housing for example, the most responsible course of action is to either make the heap totally impregnable to vermin, or to make other arrangements for waste-management. If this means no compost heap, then so be it. Now this might not be fashionable on an allotment forum, or in a political climate where we are being encouraged to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill, but it is my considered opinion.

SS
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: henamoured on September 15, 2010, 16:41
Compost heaps do attract vermin. Where this has an impact on neighbours, in areas of high-density housing for example, the most responsible course of action is to either make the heap totally impregnable to vermin, or to make other arrangements for waste-management. If this means no compost heap, then so be it.

Re. compost heaps - I suppose its smelliness/vermin attraction does depend on what you put on it. Mine are in dalek type bins and I've never noticed any smell even with chicken droppings.
I think if you get a good mix of material then the heap will not smell.
To rectify a smelly heap try putting on a 'lid' of grass cuttings which soon rot down into a thick mulch and seal the heap, thus warming it up and helping to get the smelly stage over with quickly.
Title: Re: Can Hens Crow?
Post by: Swing Swang on September 25, 2010, 07:10
henamoured - I quite agree, a well constructed heap is not foul-smelling. Indeed it may even have a 'sweet' aroma. In my experience a heap's 'smelliness' has little bearing on its attractivness to vermin - there's so much else that they like that a well constructed heap provides - warmth, worms, and in some cases dryness. Rats don't like to be wet, so regular watering, as well as all of the other methods available does seem to help.

SS