Gynandromorph Chicken

[soap&eggs]

very interesting thread for sure. several made mention of different leg colorings and spur on one leg of hen, do these fall into catogory of being a gynandromorph ? i often have chicks / chickens with 2 different colored legs, and certain breeds of hens will produce spurs. i am glad to see i am not the only one who keeps old birds around, ive had many live longer then their usefulness..14 yrs old..right now hanging onto several that are 9 & 11 yrs old. born & raised here will continue to live until they die here.would be more cruel to sell them off to another farm. have you had your chickens feathers tested for genes yet ? and for parents maybe involved? at the turkey farms around this area they get alot of birds that are not hens nor roosters, these they cull out -kill early on for either dog food or into mulch..they do not sell these for human food. they are bigger then the hens, smaller then the toms, and feathering is not quite correct. was also wondering, once inawhile i will get a throw back of lineage , silkie or top hat look, even tho breed itself does not look like this, is not nearly as obviouse as your split bird, but maybe one 1/2 head will have tophat feathering but not the other 1/2. or 1/2 face will be solid white,other 1/2 solid black, with eye colors being different ,light brown & dark brown or a golden shade. no pictures sorry. would this be a indicator for gynandromorphing ? thanks .

 

[Chic-n-farmer]

Quote:
These birds belonged to me until they were killed by dogs last spring. I can tell you for a fact that the "hen" on the right never laid an egg in the time I had her and could crow.

 

[Knittycat]

Debbi, I agree whole heartedly. I don't believe my referring to a chicken of ambiguous sex or mixed sex as an it reflects on my treatment of my fellow human beings at all. After all, I just culled a mean cockerel who had pecked a pullet bloody. Now, I don't go around chopping the heads off of people who bloody noses of other people. I also don't eat people, nor do I eat their ova.
There are so many good fights to fight out there, dragging PC-ness into a chicken forum is silly. Battery hens need to be treated more humanely, the GLTB community needs to be treated with more respect and so on. It worries me that when knickers get in a twist over the use of "it" in a chicken forum, that later on the real issue may get treated more lightly because someone who saw a fit being thrown in an inappropriate environment decided that the whole issue must be absurd.
In regards to human beings it is an important distinction, in chickens, well they don't care.

And 6happieness, I'd like to apologize for being flippant earlier. That wasn't fair to you.

 

[speckledhen]

A couple posts have been removed from the thread. Let's please keep the discussion of Gynandromorphism limited to chickens or animals in general so we don't get way off track.

Thanks!

 

[Redcatcher]

Sadly, my gyandromorph has passed on. I am in a state of shock. I have no idea how or why. I just found her dead as if she had died in her sleep. She was in perfect health and was crowing yesterday. She would have been a year old in August. I feel blessed to have had her for the short time she was on this earth. I decided to refer to her as a she, after all, since she was more like a hen than a rooster, and "it" seems just too impersonal right now.

I still have Pippin. She is alive and well. She has turned out to have much more personalty that I thought she would have. I may update her thread when I am feeling up to it.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

I'm very sorry to hear that.

 

[Lollipop]

very sad, hope you get to feeling better real soon...........Pop

 

[billfields]

Quote:
So sorry to hear that Paul. Always hard to loose any critter you care for. I'm glad you still have Pippin. She must be near a year old too.

Bill

 

[jmc]

BigDaddy'sGurl :

my point is that it will probably not exactly fit into the social structure of a flock: rooster AND hen traits...would it be able to reproduce? I mean, just as I said, what is the point? Would it crow and then head to the nesting box? I can see breeding to produce meatier birds, better layers, etc...but a hermaphroditic bird? I repeat, with no offense intended at all just surprised that time is spent on studying this, what is the point?

And in response to "the waddler", without expounding on religion, I personally plan to leave as much "Godly" things to the Man himself, lol...I don't want to destroy myself...

please keep in mind that if this is a situation wherein these gynandromorph birds are popping up naturally and then being studied, my dissenting opinion is nil....it is if the birds are being intentionally genetically engineered this way that I don't understand or agree with.

X2​

 

[Redcatcher]

Quote:
X2

This was discussed in a similar topic but I will go ahead and address it briefly. Gynandromorphs, though extremely rare, occur naturally. Why study them? Why not? Humans are inherently curious about everything in nature, especially oddities. I think the question was resolved as to how gynandromorphs occur but not WHY they occur.