Rooster or Hen?

This past spring we got four more chicks to add to our flock of four grown hens.  A few weeks ago, we managed to integrate the now grown chicks (now called pullets) into the flock.  This takes a bit of time and extra watching because the hens will pick on the pullets, sometimes to death.

Anyways, my big buff orpington hen didn't seem to accept the pullets as well as the others (remember her:  she's the one who has never laid eggs and is also a calendar girl).  She was being quite mean to them, so we decided to separate her from the flock, at least for the time being. 

Yesterday morning as I was enjoying my cup of coffee on my patio swing before church, "Big Penny" (as I often call her) woke up and came out of the roost.  She stood at the top of the ramp to the roost and - CROWED!!!   She (he?) did it six or seven times.  Now it wasn't a full blown crow, but it was definitely some sort of crow.  My husband heard it too.  We just sat there and laughed.

So this morning we got up and set up the camera.  I'll let you decide if this is a rooster or a hen:

So I have to add that young male chickens will usually start crowing between about 4- 8 months of age.  You will know if you have a rooster well before they are a year old.

We have had Penny for 3 years, and have never heard her do anything like this.  The other peculiar things about her are that she has a very large comb and wattle (the red skin thing on her head and below her beak) for a hen, she is very large and heavy, she has a very deep sounding cluck, and she has never laid eggs.  She has been sort of an anomaly in our flock over the years, but we just figured that something didn't develop right in her for her to be able to lay eggs.

Now we have to figure out what to do with her (him??).  First, we are going to change her name to "Pat."

Geez, these chickens really keep things interesting for us.