Female whit Sussex showing cockeral tendencies

Steshort1973

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We have 3 Sussex 2 banties and a full sized chicken, we have also introduced two Orpington's into the coupe. We have noticed that the larger Sussex has started to show male tendencies. Fuller wattles, brighter tail feathers, strutting around the run, also trying to crow. However we do get eggs from her. Any idea what is going on? Confused owners and a confused hen!!!
 
I wonder how old she is? It's fairly common for a mature hen to show these sorts of characteristics, due to some sort of hormonal imbalance, but the one I had stopped laying eggs whilst going through her 'sex change' so you are lucky there! Has she grown spurs? Hens often do grow spurs, and I have a couple at the moment who have quite long spurs I have to keep trimmed, although they show no other male characteristics or tendencies.
I suppose that, in any species, there will be some individuals with gender confusion to some degree. So long as she doesn't get too domineering with the other hens its probably harmless. Is she the top hen? Or has she supplanted the hen who used to be above her in the pecking order when she took on a more masculine approach to life?
This is all very interesting, do let us know a bit more about her!
 
Happens sometimes - a dominant hen will start acting a bit boyish as part of how she's keeping the others in check. Its not a worry unless she's harming or upsetting the others. If she's not bullying them and the noise isn't giving problems with the neighbours I'd not worry about it.

Watch out for when you might introduce more hens in the future though - we had a Sussex who was a good boss hen as long as everyone did what she said, but just wouldn't accept anyone new. Spent days shouting death threats across the garden at the new girls, such a dominant streak in her that we eventually gave up and ate her...
 
As said, a top hen can exhibit cockerel tendencies and also a hen can change completely into a cockerel due to ovary damage. Obviously with the latter she will not lay and also cannot fertilise eggs. We've never had a complete change (one in 10,000 hens I read have this happen, but the forums seem to suggest it is far more frequent) but have had both ends of the scale with cockerel behaviour. The sweet end was Daffodil, a hybrid with swollen feet, who was bullied and separated. She loved being in charge of her own flock of one and used to strut and make 'food call' noises to herself. The other end of the scale was Dandelion, a pure bred Rhode island Red. She became so aggressive she scared the hell out of the other hens (and me). She put them all off laying and eventually was isolated. If it wasn't for the fact we were looking after her for someone after a fox attack she would have gone the same way as Cab's hen.
 
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