Crowing Hen

It’s about time for an update on my crowing hen, Pearl, after all that hoopla last week. Pearl’s crowing seemed to get more frequent each morning. The first morning I heard one crow. The next morning, five crows. Finally after five mornings of this, we heard eighteen crows. There is a Woodburn livestock auction every Tuesday morning, and I was planning to attend and buy two laying hens.

But then this past Sunday afternoon I randomly decided to let the girls free-range again in the backyard. If you look at this picture of my ambitious squash plants, you can see the vegetables are all too big and robust for the hens to do any damage. And I figured it was time to turn the soil and add manure, both of which the chickens are a great help with.

Ever since Sunday afternoon, I have not heard one crow! I think Pearl has been too distracted with all the goodies in the yard to think about crowing. Maude and Florence have never been allowed to free-range, so all the wonders of the world are new to them.

I plan to give them access to the garden until next Spring. At that time, I will either close them in their coop or else quarantine certain sections of the yard at different times so they cannot disturb the plants. Hopefully this quells Pearl’s urge to crow. If she does decide to start up again though, I will find a farm for her to go live on. We just can’t have rooster-like crows in our urban space. And I would think a farm wouldn’t mind another crower, as long as she keep laying eggs and does not become aggressive.

Whew! Crisis averted.