Last weekend, just as I was waking up I heard a very strange sound coming from the backyard. It sounded like a rooster crowing. But wait – we don’t have a rooster! I thought, no – must be the ravens cawing and I’m just not awake yet. But then there it was again – a sort of cackling, crowing, cockadoodling. What the heck?
Hal was up and clearly heard it as well. “Who is that,” is asked, already having my suspicions. “It’s one of the barred rocks,” he said.
Aha! I knew it! Henny has been a very bossy dominatrix lately and her antics have included mounting the other hens. I wasn’t exactly certain of what was going on and just thought this was “pecking-order” behavior. Well it is and it isn’t.
This very unusual behavior has now been confirmed by My Pet Chicken — check out this link that describes this unusual, but not really uncommon behavior: http://bit.ly/bfXZwF.
So, next time you hear a rooster crowing in your house of hens – you’ll know what’s going on. We certainly know who wears the pants in our hen house!
Oh my! Those barred rocks ARE bossy, aren't they?