Can Genders Change ?

[drumstick diva]

late blooming cockerel. I call 'stealth cockerels'. They don't show true gender till they think you have fallen in love with them and will keep them regardless.

 

[Dorthia]

My rooster exactly ! Here is a pic of my late bloomer all grown up !

 

[junebuggena]

My rooster exactly ! Here is a pic of my late bloomer all grown up !

Cochins can be really slow maturing. Not unusual for them to start sprouting those male feathers until after 5 months old.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

In follow up to the original premise....IF this were a "sex reversal," which I agree this is NOT a case of that...you merely had a slow maturing rooster... but if it were a true "sex reversal," the hen would still not be able to fertilize eggs as the so called chicken "sex reversal" is just a hormonal imbalance due to the shut down of the ovary and the kicking in of the androgens from the latent gonad.

It is akin to a menopausal woman growing chin whiskers and gaining a lower voice. She is still a woman though she now sports a mustache and a husky voice.

The hen is still a hen, she just now shows masculine feathers and a deeper voice as the feminizing estrogen is no longer being released by her ovary. (It is estrogen acting on the feathers that create the female pattern...the default is the male pattern).

Fascinating stuff of chickens...and then there are chimeras...

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/n...its-own-male-or-female-identity/#.VoIL-RUrLIU

 

[jadedaisy]

Here is My bird, 6 months old and a Rhode Island Red

 

[QueenMisha]

Here is My bird, 6 months old and a Rhode Island Red

Yep, that is 100% a rooster.

 

[RooDen]

I agree with all above with it being a rooster all along. These guys behave, move around and even cackle like hens when they are adolescent. I have had a few over the years which have been difficult to identify until they are fully matured. They even sometimes grow a comb and a wattle slowly.

 

[Michael OShay]

Yep, that is 100% a rooster.

X2 on the above.

 

[Dorthia]

He took eight months ! Never crowed or mounted one hen until then. He needed to make extra certain that we loved him and would keep him before he revealed himself. E

 

[junebuggena]

He took eight months ! Never crowed or mounted one hen until then. He needed to make extra certain that we loved him and would keep him before he revealed himself. E

He might not have crowed, but his feathering is male specific.