Ever seen a 'hooster' switch back again?

[ticketism]

I have 4 girls, 2 are about 4.5ish yrs old and one had stopped laying completely as she 'went rooster' a couple of years ago, the other was seemingly slowing down naturally over time. I introduced 2 POL pullets to the flock a few months ago, provoking some strange 'pseudo laying' behaviour from both the older gals, but they still stayed basically the same with Solar (the hooster) never laying and Snow (older Orpington hen) laying just every so often. Recently however, the two youngens started laying themselves, and now Solar has decided she wants to be a hen after all, abandoned all her roosterly duties and behaviours, and is laying nearly every day, squatting and clucking and generally acting like the last couple of years never even happened. I was under the impression that when a hen 'goes rooster' it's permanent and due to an oviduct issue or similar. But she's proven me wrong, haha, so wrong! So now I've got 4 active layers and get 2-4 eggs every day. Has anyone else had a faux-rooster hen suddenly switch teams again after years of being 'man of the house'? Just wanna know if I'm just an idiot or if that's actually really strange haha. Maybe she wanted to show up the new girls like 'psshhh, you think you can lay? I'll show you laying!' Not complaining, but it's definitely been a bit funny and confusing to say the least!

 

[blackandtan]

That’s hilarious. Chickens never cease to amaze.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Sounds like the presence of the younger birds tweaked something in her hormones.

My head hen had no spurs for 2 years of her life, then spontaneously grew spurs when we added chicks. Still acts 100% hen, just with pointy bits.

 

[ticketism]

They really funny things indeed lol. I actually just got a bunch of tree lopping done in my yard today, so all the girls were locked up in the secure enclosure for safety, but they were still absolutely terrified because of all the noise. Once the tradies left I decided to come usher them out of the coop where they'd all jammed themselves into one nesting box in a big ol' pile of legs and feathers - Found 4 eggs under the chicken pile! The blokes working were only here for a couple of hours, must've scared the eggs right out of them I wish I could've gotten a photo, seeing them all smooshed into the one box on top of each other each trying to sit on each other's eggs was hilarious!

 

[aart]

How interesting!
Had a hen crow for a few months over the winter once,
she want back to laying and stopped the 'hooserting'(hahaha love the word play!) in the spring.