Did you know? (Cool chicken discussion!!)

My sil has some silkie mutt chickens, as well as polish. She keeps most of her chickens in pens, separated all the time to prevent fighting of the roos, and so that the mutts don't breed with the pures. In one of her pens, she has who she is sure is a male mutt, coupled with two other females. The females go broody alot. Actualy twice, while the two hens were broody, sil would go in the pen and notice an egg where the rooster mutt sits at night. she would get three eggs in a row, then nothing. this has happened twice. no other chicken can get into these pens, and the broodies were serioulsy broody, nearing hatch date--so it is not possible for them to be laying the eggs. She has never figured this out.
 
Well, just because a hen crows doesn't mean she is in fact turned male. Some have more dominant behaviors and will take on the roll, especially when there is lack of a male. If the plumage changes, it's one sure sign, anyway.
 
I couldn't seem to find it right now, but I believe there is a discussion on BYC somewhere about this topic. They said it happened hen-to-roo, not the other way around, usually when there were no roosters. Occasionally they can actually produce offspring! Nature's way of ensuring the species survives I guess.

I wish I could be offering a link to that discussion thread, but was unable to find it with searches for "sex change" or "hen turning into rooster" for what it is worth, but there was a detailed scientific explaination. Maybe someone will chime in with its location.
 
I think I remember seeing that as well..
Wasn't there something about a ROOSTER being burned at the stake in the old days because of this? I'm not kidding.. I specifically remember something about that.
 
Yes! I was thinking how easily things we cannot explain become "supernatural".....

I have five teenage chickens and yesterday we realized one of them is a cockerel.....after we thought they were all pullets, so I'm feeling this one! I was counting my chickens before they........layed.

I'd sure hate to have all hens and have one turn into a roo....at least this new rooster isn't crowing though, right?
 
My little, TINY Mexican Fighting Hen crows, shes def a female because she lays a nest and goes broody. But she felt compelled to start crowing, every morning. She is also the one who chases the "It" around haha!

My boss thinks that she might be a slow growing roo, but I really think its just that hermaphrodite thing! Its seriously interesting.
 
I've got a red sex link who is doing the same thing. She/he has always been aggressive to the other hens, has a bigger comb, and has a half-spur on one leg. Never crowed, tho, and lays (or at least sits in the nest). They're all a bunch of free-loaders now. I had read that this could happen, especially in a flock without a roo.
 
Um, not exactly, guys.

Hens do not have "one testicle and one ovary" -- they have two ovaries and zero testicles. They only USE one ovary -- the other one does not develop into a functional structure.

These apparent sex changes happen when that one functioning ovary stops functioning for whatever reason. In that case there is no longer, um, female hormones being produced (too lazy to look up exactly what). In the absence of female hormone production, various bodily systems revert to a male-ish mode, including enlarged comb and wattles and a tendency to crow and sometimes even behavioral things like mating behavior.

These apparent sex-change chickens are NOT actual male, however. They still have zero testicles, and they are not capable of fertilizing a hen.

(Though there are some creatures, mainly fish, capable of ACTUAL sex change, i.e. going from being a reproductively-functioning female to being a reproductively-functioning male or vice versa)

e.t.a. -- for all them biological details I have left out or 'fluffed' on, see http://en.engormix.com/MA-poultry-industry/genetic/artigos/sex-reversal-chickens-t926/103-p0.htm

Pat
 
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