Have a bi-chicken?

[ikoCRO]

If I have time tomorrow, I will film the situation with one Wyandotte hen in my flock.
I don't have a rooster in the flock for 2 months (the disease killed my rooster), since it's winter and I want to get a quality rooster, my girls have been alone for 2 months.
One of them started behaving like a rooster, pecks the others and pretends to be the boss. She started performing the love dance (you know the one when the rooster dances around the hen) and when she find food, she calls the other girls with the rooster's voice (you know what I mean).
Is she gay?
Of course not, it's just instinct that makes her behave like that.
He will stop doing that as soon as a boy comes to the flock!

 

[Shadrach]

All questions asked in good faith are most welcome here. It's how we are able to share interesting information and everyone often then learns something they didn't know before.

When I began posting on BYC thirteen years ago, I asked a similar question about a Brahma hen that absolutely would not tolerate being mated by the rooster and I was wondering if she was gay. I would like to think BYC has become a more open forum to discuss such topics as my post was first ridiculed by a moderator who pointed out "animals are not capable of such moral depravity" and then my thread was removed.

There are as many documented cases of homosexual behavior in animals as there are in the human species. The gay happens to pop up regularly in my family so I have seen first hand how it is definitely not a moral issue but a biological one. It angers me that there still persists this notion of homosexuality being depraved in our culture in view of people now being targeted and slaughtered over this misguided attitude. It has to stop. I intend not to remain silent whatever it costs.

I've always found chickens to be very gender fluid if that's the right expression to use these days.
I will start being concerned when adult roosters start laying eggs. I'm cool with the other chicken stuff including boot love.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Wrong again!
Although I am not fully familiar with the case of "gay" penguins, reading on Wikipedia I see that you have fallen into the trap of misinterpreting sexuality in animals.
In that case the two males Roy and Silo maintained a "homosexual" relationship.
Such "homosexual" relationships are common in the animal world, only because there are not enough partners of the opposite sex in the herd.
The urge to reproduce makes them behave this way.
There is never any penetration (khm,khm..you know what). no sexual pleasure! A very important point when comparing human and "animal homosexuality".
If a free partner of the opposite sex appears in the herd, the "homosexual" relationship stops and the "homosexual" animal enters into a relationship with the opposite sex.
Later, Silo the penguin found a female Scrappy and became heterosexual!

I think you should definitely check out the pigeon subforum on byc and tell them that. There’s been many, many instances where pigeon fanciers have had pigeons in a same-sex pairing refuse to pair with a member of the opposite sex, despite them being available. This causes frustration to those trying to breed the pigeons.
Here’s one example:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/homosexual-behavior-in-pigeons.1388536/post-22925384

Same-sex pairings seem to be much more common in species that mate for life and are relatively monogamous, so that’s why this isn’t often seen in chickens.

Most birds don’t mate in the same that humans do, since they have different reproductive organs, so you can’t really compare that part of their life to human experiences.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

He will stop doing that as soon as a boy comes to the flock!

While my hens didn’t start crowing until I had no roosters in the flock, they’ve always did the wing shuffle to each other (and to subordinate roosters), so you may see that behavior continue.

 

[tlcmurphy]

I believe the term you’re searching for is hermaphrodite, and yes birds including chickens can be hermaphroditic (born with both ovaries and testicles).

 

[JacinLarkwell]

While my hens didn’t start crowing until I had no roosters in the flock, they’ve always did the wing shuffle to each other (and to subordinate roosters), so you may see that behavior continue.

I gotta agree. I had a little sebright gal that went into rooster mode after I made her stop brooding, even though there were like 6 other males in the flock she was moved to. She absolutely fell in love with one of my other hens, but the feeling wasn't shared. Wish I'd gotten her on video a few times, it was so silly to watch her

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I believe the term you’re searching for is hermaphrodite, and yes birds including chickens can be hermaphroditic (born with both ovaries and testicles).

Incredibly rare though. Usually the rooster traits develop after one of the hen's ovaries have been damaged, or if there is no male (kinda like groupers, but not as complete)

 

[tlcmurphy]

Incredibly rare though. Usually the rooster traits develop after one of the hen's ovaries have been damaged, or if there is no male (kinda like groupers, but not as complete)

Yes, very rare but still possible just not probable

 

[NatJ]

you have fallen into the trap of misinterpreting sexuality in animals.

So are you just complaining about the choice of words?
Because as far as facts, there certainly ARE animals that show traits of both genders, in appearance or behavior or both.

Some of them are fairly well known (hen-feathered roosters in the Sebright breed, crowing hens like OP has)

Some are less common, like the animals described in this wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynandromorphism
Yes, that article is talking about animals that are LITERALLY part male and part female. Take a tissue sample, check the DNA, and you get different results from different parts of the same animal.

Here's a study of several chickens that had both male and female traits:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3925877/
There's a photo as well as a bunch of technical descriptions of what they found as they studied these chickens.

 

[ikoCRO]

I think you should definitely check out the pigeon subforum on byc and tell them that. There’s been many, many instances where pigeon fanciers have had pigeons in a same-sex pairing refuse to pair with a member of the opposite sex, despite them being available. This causes frustration to those trying to breed the pigeons.
Here’s one example:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/homosexual-behavior-in-pigeons.1388536/post-22925384

Same-sex pairings seem to be much more common in species that mate for life and are relatively monogamous, so that’s why this isn’t often seen in chickens.

Most birds don’t mate in the same that humans do, since they have different reproductive organs, so you can’t really compare that part of their life to human experiences.

When I wrote those posts, I was thinking about normal conditions in the animal world.
Life in captivity for any animal is simply not natural and animals are subject to various disorders.
Pigeons have a love life quite similar to that of humans (adultery, jealousy, and even homophobia) and the rule I wrote in the case of penguins applies to them!

That person who has a problem with two "lesbian" pigeons, is actually not a good pigeon breeder, because he does not know the "secrets" of pairing pigeons!
Her problem is very easy to solve.
It is enough to close a "lesbian" with a male pigeon in a small cage for ten days and they will mate!

To explain homophobia in pigeons:
"Gay" couples in the pigeon loft are exposed to the harassment of the entire flock, all real pigeon fanciers know that!