Gynandromorph Chicken

[Redcatcher]

Updated photos. It is an it and it has no name other than PS.G-4 (for the fourth gynandromorph in the study.)

 

[Redcatcher]

These are the lastest photos I have of it...her? The egg would not be fertile since it is not with a rooster. The dark side is almost sold black now but that is about the only difference. The fact that it laid an egg might immediately render the bird fertile. That is, it can reproduce.

 

[Redcatcher]

You can see how red and enlarged the comb is at 3-4 weeks of age. I have never seen a pullet with a comb like that at such an early age. It has a pea comb besides which remains relatively small.

 

[PortugalBreeder]

Look at the one in the right, seems Gynandromorph?

 

[Redcatcher]

Well, we are not 100% certain what we are looking at now. I took this photo of it last night. It molted and new feathers are just starting to come in now. There are what appears to be male hackle feathers coming in. They are dense, hard and glossy like a male. You can see how heavy the hackle feathers are now and half of them are just pin feathers. There may be saddle and sickle feathers too. Just too early to tell. The other side is sort of a partridge columbian mix. At any rate, the hackle feathers do not appear to be 100% female to me.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Yes, this is an absolutely fascinating thread! I wonder if I have a BO that is a gynandromorph. I think the uniform coloration of the BOs might make gynandromorphy less obvious. I bought her as a day-old chick from a local breeder. She grew faster than the other chicks I got with her and for a while, we suspected that she would be a rooster. She ended up being a hen, but was the last to lay of my six hens. She's also very beastly big, being at least 50% heavier than my next heaviest hen (CM) and nearly double the weight of her actual BO sister. After laying intermittently for a month, she stopped. Eventually she molted and now at 13 months of age, she's laying intermittently again. Between the laying bouts she grew a large spur--nearly an inch long--on her right foot. The spur on her left foot is a tiny button-nub. I also think I see shape asymmetries from left to right. She's otherwise a delightful chicken.

Here are a couple interesting articles on gynandromorph chickens, the first is easier to understand, the second is a bit more detailed for those wanting to understand the underlying mechanisms.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100315-half-male-half-female-chickens/

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/03/no-sexual-confusion-for-chicken.html

 

[Wonderwend]

I got given one of these the other day by a friend. S/he is laying.
Redcatcher - would anything about her be useful for the Edinburgh study?

 

[Mahonri]

So is it male, female or both?

I had an EE that had one leg green and one leg yellow and one side looked like it had rooster feathers and the other side not...

Daddy is a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana, Mama a Cinnamon Queen.. here's what we got.

 

[Chris09]

LOL,
Every time I see this bird it reminds me of Two-face off of Batman.

Chris

 

[Redcatcher]

Quote:
It sounds like another gynandromorph to me. What happened to it and do you have a photo showing both sides? The are both male and female though some lean towards being more male or more female.