Can Chickens Change Their Gender?
Chicken keepers will tell you that it is fairly common when you keep a group of hens together without a Rooster that one strong hen will begin to act and produce hormones consistent with a rooster. The hen will become dominant, stop laying eggs, her comb and waddles will grow, she will begin to crow and in some cases she will even mount the other hens.
Pictured above is Belladon, my friend's hen who looks and sounds like a rooster.
Belladon belongs to my friend. She is a one year-old hen who has been kept with other pullets and hens. Until a few months ago she looked like the other hens of her breed with a smaller comb and waddles. As the transition happened she stopped laying eggs, started crowing, and even attempted to mount the other hens. As her transition moved on, she was so convincing the other roosters started to attack her.
Did Belladon change her gender? Although there are physical changes that take place, all of her plumbing remains the same, and she has female sex organs and would not be able to fertilize the other hens.
There are many stories of hens transitioning to be more rooster-like and I will include some links at the end of this post. Science believes the hormones the hens produce change to make the physical changes in their bodies.
In Belladon's case, she is currently being kept away from the other chickens for her safety and my friend plans to build her and another hen a small run where Belladon can live in safety from the roosters.
As my friend stated, we accept Belladon just the way she is.
(links to other gender changing chicken stories below)
http://scoopfromthecoop.nutrenaworld.com/tag/can-my-hen-become-a-rooster/
http://www.livescience.com/13514-sex-change-chicken-gertie-hen-bertie-cockerel.html
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Hi @watsup
Very interesting post, I would like to see the developments as described by you in your answer to @tommycordero
I am interested too! I will continue to post about her once in a while as she under-goes the changes. I also thought tommycordero's idea of putting several hensters would be interesting if it could be coordinated. In this case she couldn't left with the other roosters, as they were trying to kill her.
I am looking forward to the next post.
@whatsup, you have yourself a butch hen. I see this take place with humans as well. She is still a hot chick!
lol, she is a great henster. My friend will be documenting her "change".
Do you have any theories as to why this would happen?
My best theory is that chickens have an extremely strong social order, usually living with a dominate rooster and a flock of hens. The roosters protect and keep order within the flock.
My theory would be their society is uncomfortable and perhaps unsafe for them without a rooster. In the earliest part of the transition, the hen just becomes dominate. Over time, her hormones change, and as it progresses, even their feather and body types can change to the point that even experts can not tell what sex they are without examining the sex organs. I think it is fascinating that overtime they change more and more.
Take a bunch of these hensters and put them together, see how they behave and how their bodies respond...
I know this has happened before and I've been fascinated by it since I came to know of it, I was just never able to find out whether there's any data to indicate how often this can be observed.
I haven't seen any "real numbers". However, I know of at least 2 cases of this near me. One of the reasons my friend wants to keep this hen is to watch the progression of change. Her comb and waddles have grown and turned "redder". The next step would be growing a spur and then the change in her feathers. She is going to photograph and weigh her regularly. Extremely interesting.
lol, on Hensters!
@whatsup thank you #TIL chickens go gay too so it's so freakin normal ey?
I wonder if by studying this if in someway we could help the human transgender community is someway, if only to be able to find a scientific reason for the change. I think we could all benefit from understanding.
@whatsup well, maybe we should just accept them
the happier the world would be
I have no probs with gay, they are one of the funniest people I've had in my life :)
as for the scientific reason - maybe there is
most of them say the same thing - "I'm a different gender trapped in an opposite gender's body".
If we believe in the existence of the soul - then it's possible that the soul got a wrong casing? This would open another topic I suppose :)
I accept them. I only know 2 personally, but they are both great people who struggle with the lack of acceptance.
There is a theory that during pregnancy a fetus could be "washed" in the wrong hormone which would confuse the brain from the body. Who knows, either way, it is obviously a thing, even in nature. :)
@whatsup that's possible
I wish we have the same capacity as oysters
the came out of this world with 2 genders
then in time, they choose just one - what they want to be
if only ...