DO NOT LAUGH AT ME!!! IS TIS HEN TURNING INTO A ROOSTER?

[rooster-red]

Hens cannot change into roosters

Some may pick up the characteristics of a roo if there is no roo in the flock, some can grow spurs, some will try crowing.

They are still hens, though they may be cross dressers.

 

[TheOLDNewChick]

Awwwww, happy birthday Roo, you RUINED my fun! I was getting alot of entertainment out of the thought. Thanks. :|

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
Glad I could be of help.

 

[tink]

Only if it lives in LA!!!! just a little joke....I used to live in CA
Tink

 

[LoneCowboy]

Actually, I read about this in the Chicken Health Book by Gail Damerow. Yes, it's called Spontantious Sex Change. It's a virus or something that blocks some hormone in the hen. And yes, it can start crowing, and stop laying eggs and put on a Roosters plumage. If you treat it before the next molt, it will start laying eggs again but look like a rooster. After the next molt, she will go back to normal.

The more I read, the more I think that Chickens were just a science project gone wrong.

 

[sunnychooks]

Check out this web page from the University of Florida about sex reversals in chickens!

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS050

 

[ivan3]

Must be a lot of crowing hens as this is a perennial topic here. I'll post up our `variant' again as `she' crows ALONG WITH the rooster every morning. She didn't start crowing until she was a year old (when I first heard the roo crow and the hen follow two beats later - thought the roo was at death's door - horrible sound).

She is continuing to crow along with the roo (only in the morning) and has gotten so much more accomplished in her crowing (2.5yr); still two beats after the roo's crow. She has but one tiny egg to her credit.

Apparently crowing hens used to be considered bad luck and somewhat evil (wayward?):

"A whistling wife
And a crowing hen
Will come to god,
But god knows when."

You can draw your own conclusions about that bit of social ephemera.

Here's our Big Red (a bit daffy but a good girl):

 

[Blisschick]

Hmmm...looks like she's got a hormone problem, for sure. Comb and spurs? Wow.

 

[bluerose]

I have a hen with a comb that's big enough it's flopping over and big ol wattles and earlobes... no spurs tho- or crowing.

She's overly curious and is kind of aggressive in a roostery way though...

*shrug*

 

[SloCrevs]

I have a 7 yo little Belgium Bearded D'uccle Mille Fluer hen who every time we get a rooster, once he's gone, she starts crowing. It's like she has to fill in for him. Now I have 1 serama cockerel for good, and he sounds like a squeaky toy. It's hilarious.