Hen crowing
A hen crowing is, in most cases, a hen filling a rooster's empty post, and old rhymes scolded her for it, pairing her with a whistling woman. In Korea, though, a crowing hen once foretold an official post for its owner.
What it may mean
In Cornwall, according to an encyclopedia of superstitions from 1903, a whistling woman and a crowing hen were the most unlucky things under the sun, and a rhyme said the pair would call "the old one" out of his den. The hen's offense was doing a rooster's job. In real flocks this happens when there is no rooster: the top hen starts to crow and keep watch, and an older hen whose hormones shift may grow a bigger comb and find the voice to match. She is filling a post that stood empty. People meet the same frown when they step into a role nobody handed them, like the youngest sibling who starts running the holidays or the quiet coworker who speaks first in a stalled meeting. In Korea, the same book says, a crowing hen foretold an official post for its owner.
Depending on how you saw it
Which way she faced
In Albania, the old encyclopedia notes, it mattered where the hen was looking: one that crowed without turning her head to the east signaled that someone in the family would die, or something nearly as bad. Which small detail do you fix on when you are trying to decide how worried to be?
A crowing hen in a backyard coop
In towns that ban roosters, backyard keepers are sometimes startled when one of their hens starts crowing, and a neighbor complains about a rooster that does not exist. Where have you been mistaken for a role you never took on?
A storm within doors
Brand quotes a weather book of the 1650s by Willsford, which warned that when the hen crows, good men may expect a storm within doors and without, a joke about weather and household quarrels at once. Which change in who speaks up at home caused more fuss than it deserved?
Why it happens in nature
Hens can crow. In flocks without a rooster, the dominant hen sometimes takes over his calls and lookout duty. A hen whose single working ovary fails, through age, injury or disease, can also develop male traits such as a larger comb and crowing, a change poultry keepers call spontaneous sex reversal.
What folk beliefs say
England (Cornwall)
In Cornwall, a whistling woman and a crowing hen were said to be the most unlucky things under the sun, and a common saying ran: "A whistling wife, and a crowing hen, will call the old one out of his den."
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 1 (1903), vol. 1, p. 345. View the page
Transylvania
In Transylvania, a black hen that crowed was a sign of death, which could only be turned aside by putting the hen in a bag at once and carrying it three times around the house.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 631. View the page
Albania
In Albania, a hen crowing like a cock without turning its head to the east signified a death in the family, or something as bad as death.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 876. View the page
Korea
A 1903 encyclopedia records that in Korea, a hen that crowed like a rooster was a sign its owner would get an office.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 875. View the page
England
Brand quotes Willsford's Nature's Secrets: when the hen crows, good men expect a storm within doors and without.
Source: John Brand; Henry Ellis (ed.), Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 3 (1849), vol. 3, p. 219. View the page
To reflect on
Where have you stepped into a role nobody gave you, and how did people react?