Black Sex Link Roo With Hen Markings?!

[JedJackson]

Wow, that's interesting! I never knew that it could happen

It's rare but it does happen. Hens are born with two ovaries but one of them always atrophies so that there's only one functional ovary in a normal hen. If this ovary is damaged the symptoms I described earlier will occur. I've had it happen with three of my hens in the past and needless to say the first time it happened I was astounded. A hen crowing is just disturbing until you know what's going on.

That said, it's still very possible the hen in this case was just making weird, new noises and will turn out to be otherwise normal.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I'm feeling encouraged, but how do you all explain the attempts at crowing?

Dominant hens can crow, they usually only do so if they're isn't any roosters around.

 

[Birdinhand]

wow, so I offered up the rooster on a local FB group. I told her that I wasn't sure and wanted to wait for a few more weeks, she offered to come and take a look for me today anyway. she said she is 99% sure it's a hen, in fact a stelar specimen, show quality... who knew! She brought up a picture on line of a BSL hen that looked exactly like the one pictured above and said that the other BSL that I have, that looked more typical of a hen, was not typical of this breed, apparently this breed gets big combs and big red wattles. She was also convinced that my hen didn't actually crow but just vocalized, that if it were starting to crow it would just keep doing it incessantly. she looked under the neck feathers to see if hackle feathers were coming along and there was nothing. I have to say I keep learning a new things, I am humbled and intrigued, thank you all for you input. I'll check back in in some weeks after it either starts laying or actually crowing.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

wow, so I offered up the rooster on a local FB group. I told her that I wasn't sure and wanted to wait for a few more weeks, she offered to come and take a look for me today anyway. she said she is 99% sure it's a hen, in fact a stelar specimen, show quality... who knew! She brought up a picture on line of a BSL hen that looked exactly like the one pictured above and said that the other BSL that I have, that looked more typical of a hen, was not typical of this breed, apparently this breed gets big combs and big red wattles. She was also convinced that my hen didn't actually crow but just vocalized, that if it were starting to crow it would just keep doing it incessantly. she looked under the neck feathers to see if hackle feathers were coming along and there was nothing. I have to say I keep learning a new things, I am humbled and intrigued, thank you all for you input. I'll check back in in some weeks after it either starts laying or actually crowing.

BSL are not shown as there is no breed standard for them because they are not a breed