Quote:
One of the reasons I like Practical Poultry is the explanations of terminology. In the August issue the Letter is C, each month it's different letter and gives all these terms that start w/ that months' letter.
Well one of the terms it explains is "Change in Sex" . It is quite difficult to explain in this post the paragraph is long. But here are three paragraphs.
"The male hormones are responsible for the comb and wattle developement, and the female for the feathering. There have been no reported cases of true hermaphrodites, ie, birds that functions as both male and female simultaneously, but there are recorded incidences of males resulting from sex-reversal , siring chicks.
There have been instances where hens have apparently changed from females, having laid for a season , to appear as crowing males after the moult, remaining in this state throughout the following season, some even laying eggs before reverting back to their oringinal form for year three. This scenario can be explained as follow, the hen is normal but, during the annual moult, the ovary becomes so inactive it fails to secrete enough female hormone to cause the new feathers to be of the female type.
Poulards feathers result, almost indistinguishable from those of a male but, as the bird comes out of the moult and the ovary get back to its normal state, the bird will function as a female again and lay eggs. The comb and watttles tend to be those associated with a male and while these may gradually get smaller over the season the feathering will remain until the next moult and the hen is seen as a laying cock. At the next moiult the same may happen again , or she may go back to being entirely female. "
Confused yet? While it is interesting it is confusing. Maybe there is a sex reversal or some other work going on that I can't explain. One thing is for sure put one of those eggs in the incu and see what happens. May be you got a rooster who's a cross- dresser.
I have a headache.