I have a polish Hen, she is around 2 years old, and she has started crowing on a morning???? Any ideas
So the rooster is gone then?It's funny, as she is a defenate Hen, and talking to someone today, they say if you have a rooster present, but now the rooster is gone, she will release a hormone that will make her imitate a roo and she may get worse or she may get better and get board, so hopefully she will get better
Is it had for a hen to crow? I'm confusesBee said:There's an old saying..."a whistling woman and a crowing hen, both will come to no good end".
it was also an Irish proverb: "A whistling woman and a crowing hen will bring no luck to the house they are in." Or in London in the 18th century: "A whistling woman and a crowing hen, Are neither good for God nor men'. " and "A whistling woman and a crowing hen, Will frighten the Devil out of his den." In Nova Scotia this notion can be found in a few folk songs. So what is wrong with whistling women? I can see how a crowing hen would be upsetting. Most of the time roosters crow, a crowing hen would be rather odd-- but why is whistling considered, well... masculine?
I started thinking about an old theatre superstition: never whistle in a theatre this one goes back to the 17th century in London when sailors often ran the ropes and rigging in theaters when they got sick of the sea. Sailors used whistles to alert each other of falling objects. So whistling in a theatre could have caused chaos and delayed the opening by breaking the set.
Since sailors whistle, perhaps it was seen as a "carefree and loose" (like sailors) -- these have never been socially acceptable traits for a woman (especially a woman who is in your home, as opposed to one who's in your motel...)
Whistling is also fairly "lower class" -poor men had nothing to play song on so they used the mouth-flute of the whistle to make their songs.
Maybe it is the kiss-like puckering of the whistle. (are whistles seductive?")
When Hens Begin To Crow is the title of a study by Sylvia Tamale of gender and politics in Uganda. In fact it seems that many feminists have taken up the cause of reversing the whistling metaphor. In Uganda and in the American South crowing hens must be killed right away or they will bring bad luck. Is the proverb sexist?
Maybe women are meant to hum? (humming men always seemed suspicious to me)
Even after reading everything I could find on the subject I still don't know why whistling is thought of as masculine.
I had a polish hen do this.We did not have a roo at the time and she decided she was head honcho.She stopped after we got our roo.Hens will crow when there is no rooster present no matter the age they will do this because she is most likely the dominant hen there for playing a dominant roosters part in the flock