She thinks she is a cockerel

[Ayrshire Dave]

One of our girls lately much to the annoyance of our neighbours and to ourselves has taken to strutting about and clucking loudly and seems to be standing on one leg an awful lot, generally our brood are fairly quiet with the odd loud cluck, we get the usual talking amongst themselves and the excited noises as they see us approach the run but this din is something else altogether, anyone else experienced this and what may have brought this on ?
Dave

[perchy]

Is it the egg laying song? that can be very loud indeed, one of mine did it really loud for a while and then stopped? They still do the egg laying song but not quite so loud? Is she laying in the same place? sometimes they do this when they want to lay and cannot get where they want to be if you see what I mean?

[Ayrshire Dave]

That could well be the answer as it does seem to be worse around laying time, they all lay in the same place 99% of the time and generally only two at a time can fit in the box (we have 4 girls). Having said that the strutting and clucking does continue during the day though not as constant.
Thanks
Dave

[kitla]

Is she just loud clucking or actually crowing? Yes hen's can crow sometimes, usually
means they have a cyst or tumour on an ovary. But if she's just shouting it may be
that she's taken over as top hen, or maybe there's something around like a squirrel/
cat/buzzard that she's shouting about. If she's a posh girl maybe she's about to go
broody, that can make them noisy, also if they want to lay but the nestbox is full!
You need to put your Sherlock Holmes hat on & work out what's going on! It would be worth having a look at the foot she doesn't like standing on, she may have a bumble that needs treating or something stuck between her toes or something.

[Ayrshire Dave]

She has always been the top girl, though never a bully, and yes it seems to be more crowing than clucking and it is very loud we can hear it from bottom of garden 60ft away through closed windows, her feet are fine we regularly check all the girls several times a week, the leg she stands on varies, however I am looking out my deerstalker and magnifying glass as we speak, thanks.
Dave

[tosca100]

We have one that starts when she finds one of the other 11 hens in the only nest box they will use, has a break while laying then starts again...drives me bonkers! She's been doing it all summer since we got her three years ago.

[Richard]

Oh dear !!!!

They will also do a similar cluck when they think danger is about.

Just thought I'd put another nail in !!!

Richard

[untouchable]

I had a Bluebell who laid eggs for the first year, then had a moult, and decided she was deffo a he!

She actually used to cock-a-doodle-do several times a day. I guess is lasted about a month(ish) until all her feathers grew back, then she remembered she was a she after all!


Where I have got my horses, the farmer said he had never heard of it before, and he had kept chickens for years and years, but she hasn't done it since.

Most strange...

[Maxricky]

I sympathise, I've just posted myself about a similar problem. It's really difficult when the neighbours complain too. How did you get on. Any ideas on what's causing it.