Gender bender hen

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Henrietta

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Hello,
I found one posting about a "crowing hen" but there weren't threads that really applied so am posting a new topic. My Buttercup (a large Nero hen and referred to elsewhere as she had an impacted crop op)- was a beautiful layer when we got her. She was less than a year old and came to us with her "bessy mate". When settled she quickly asserted her position as head girl (amongst 8 other girls). Her eggs were massive - regularly 78 - 81gms. Then quite suddenly - she just stopped laying eggs. She was perfectly well in herself, vet could find nothing wrong with her. A few weeks later we heard the most peculiar noise from the chicken run.....and realised that Buttercup was attempting to crow. Since that day - around 1.5 years ago - she has never laid another egg, she occasionally "crows" particularly in summer and remains in charge. Has anyone else experienced this apparent "lifestyle" choice in their chickens? I spoke to a breeder about it and she said she had heard it can happen in all female flocks (I do miss her lovely eggs though).
 
I've read about it happening and there was a TV program last year where an ex batt hen (originally) had somehow not been noticed in a barn, not laying and with a very big comb and wattles. Double lucky! He had to learn not only how to be a free chicken but also how to be a rooster! (the hens were not suitability impressed at first)
 
Ok thanks Rick. Didn't see the programme and haven't found any articles on this phenomenon. Oh well...will keep asking!
 
It's called 'spontanious sex reversal'. It happens with amphibians too apparently. Nature's way of saving the day in an all female population I think ( which can happen when the males are all wiped out by fighting!) There's a lot about it on the net.
P.s. It's pretty rare by all accounts so you may struggle to find someone else it's directly happened to without trawling the net pretty wide (as it were.)
It's also not usually completely successful - even rarer, to the point of being maybe being unconfirmed, that a sex change hen has become a parent.
It's probably a genetic trait left over from chickens evolutionary ancestors that is no longer fully viable.
I found references to it being caused by damage to the left ovary (chickens only have one ovary, the left one) so that's probably what happened to your hen. At least, and fortunately, she survived the damage (caused by a desease)
 
I realise im a couple of months late, but just saw this post. I have a genderbender hen . A very beautiful speckledy, dominant, and always a rubbish layer. Has started crowing, growing tail feathers and her comb is enormous. Shes super handsome!
 
One of my girls has been crowing recently, but she stops before I can see which one it is. They're both post-henopausal, neither with especially large comb & wattles, so I may never know who it is. It's quite cute to listen to though 8-)
 
I had a Minorca that did this. Hens only have one ovary, and it can stop functioning at any point, either due to age or disease as rick says. When this happens the male hormones sometimes take over and the bird can start to take on a male appearance. I've never heard of one being able to father chicks though.
Some hens though will attempt crowing and even treading, while still continuing to lay eggs, in order to assert their dominance in a female only flock.
 
I used to have a beautiful cuckoo maran (called "pigahlet my pigahlet"!) who laid for one season, moulted and went off lay over Winter and came back in Spring crowing. Never laid another egg.
 
Our 5 year old Bluebell has just started crowing, not overly loud but done with a great deal of wing flapping and " look what I can do instead of laying eggs" posing
 
Forget the ovary thing which happens with one in 10,000 in Commercial environments. Hens can crow just because they are happy- we have six!
 
Having had chickens for a bit longer now I have to agree that they seem to do these things as it takes their fancy. My bantam fella went through a phase of sitting on the nest and egg singing.
 
I had a Nankin bantam hen who crowed. Not a very good crow admittedly, but I think she did it for joy, as has been suggested before.
 
I remember going on an LBGTQ march in Sheffield years ago. There were more chickens than people. Nothing against sexual fluidity but the ones in drag were a bit challenging. You know, stick on wattles, peacock feathers up their arses, that kinda thing.
Made the human ladies with cropped hair and Doc Martins look positively homely.
 
Maybe there was confusion over the acronym and some folk thought they were joining the Leghorn, Brahma, Goldline, Turkey, Quail march.
 
:lol: :lol: :lol: Sorry Hen-Gen but for personal reasons Dinosaw's post really made me laugh!
 
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