Have a bi-chicken?

[Geena]

Animals can't be gay, lesbian, trans, bi, or anything.

Perhaps they could be, but how would you know? They'd have to be able to explain how and why they have a preference for one sex or another or both, and animals aren't able to do that. If indeed they really even understand gender at all.

As Shadrach pointed out, some animals will even form a relationship of sorts with an inanimate object, so I wouldn't put too much stock into who or what they may or may not find attractive.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

obviously impossible

Not at all impossible. Very rare, yes. Not impossible

 

[Meri Maura]

Not at all impossible. Very rare, yes. Not impossible

It is impossible for a chicken to have functioning male and female reproductive organs and mate with itself. That is just silly. While I'm not disputing that animals can form friendships with the same sex, animals have an instinct to mate to prevent them from going extinct. That being said, most of these "gay" animals have occurred due to a lack of mates.

 

[theoldchick]

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=5a15...ZXJtYXBocm9kaXRlLWNoaWNrZW5zLjQ1NzU5Mi8&ntb=1

 

[Buckingham Palace]

Just curious if anyone else has had or knew someone else who has had a bi-sexual chicken? I have a Hen+- that has laid a few fertilized eggs and sometimes tries to crow. Anybody? Should I call Ripely's?

Wouldn’t your chicken be trans not bisexual?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

It is impossible for a chicken to have functioning male and female reproductive organs and mate with itself. That is just silly. While I'm not disputing that animals can form friendships with the same sex, animals have an instinct to mate to prevent them from going extinct. That being said, most of these "gay" animals have occurred due to a lack of mates.

Oh. Sorry. I must have misread it a bit. I thought they were saying it was impossible to have both sets of organs

 

[Pampered chicken girl]

Perhaps they could be, but how would you know? They'd have to be able to explain how and why they have a preference for one sex or another or both, and animals aren't able to do that. If indeed they really even understand gender at all.

Simple instict....and the fact the species is still alive. Animals mate for reproduction, not pleasure.

 

[azygous]

Just curious if anyone else has had or knew someone else who has had a bi-sexual chicken? I have a Hen+- that has laid a few fertilized eggs and sometimes tries to crow. Anybody? Should I call Ripely's?

I think we've gotten quite off track from our thread starter's stated reason for this thread. So I posted it again to try to answer their question. But first terminology needs to be clarified.

Many responders, as well as the OP, seem to be very uncertain about terminology as we discuss this issue of sexuality of animals, chickens in particular. So I'd like to clarify the terms that have been used, not all correctly.

Bi-sexual means being drawn to mate with either sex. Happens in most species.

Homosexual means being drawn to mate with the same sex, although in humans it also means sexual identity. Happens in most species.

Trans means nothing in animals because it involves gender dysphoria, an identity issue in humans which means being uncomfortable with the gender that was assigned at birth. The human person may have the organs and physical appearance of one sex while identifying as the opposite sex.

Androgynous, hermaphrodite, intersex all mean an individual has both female and male sex organs as well as secondary sexual characteristics of both sexes. In humans, they often identify as both male and female. In humans, they may be either a-sexual, not attracted to mate with either sex or bi-sexual, attracted to both sexes as sexual partners.

Those are the main ones. Whether people like it or not, sex cannot be nailed down neatly into just two categories. This goes for all living organisms, animal, human, insect, reptiles, that reproduce sexually. It's a continuum, irrespective of what your pastor or minister or state representative says.

But we are here to address the question the OP asked about their chicken. Let's break it down.

A hen that lays eggs that are fertilized is a chicken with a functioning ovary. That makes it a hen. If the eggs are fertilized, it's because the hen has mated with a rooster with functioning testicles.

If a hen crows, it only means that she likes to crow. Beyond that, it has nothing at all to do with her sexuality. She is simply a hen.

There are many variations, though rare, among chickens. Some variations are anomalies of anatomy at hatch and later maturity, others are the result of injury to sexual organs. These can result in Guinness or Ripply's type of animal "oddities" such as a hen with a damaged ovary triggering androgen hormones that cause her to develop male secondary characteristics such as rooster feathering and aggressive behavior. Or a rooster's testicle may be injured and testosterone is interrupted resulting in a "half and half" appearance developing. Then you have variations in individuals that refuse to mate at all or will be inclined to mate with either sex. It can get as confusing as human sexuality but without the psychological or transitioning expenses.

 

[NatJ]

It is impossible for a chicken to have functioning male and female reproductive organs and mate with itself.

I don't think I've read of any case where both sets were functional in chickens. But it does happen in some other kinds of animals.

That is just silly.

Many silly things do exist, including animals that have both male and female organs, and yes some of them can mate with themselves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_hermaphroditism
"In this form of hermaphroditism an individual has sex organs of both sexes and can produce both gamete types[1] even in the same breeding season....In simultaneous hermaphrodites, self-fertilization is possible in some species, where in others it is absent."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_hermaphroditism
This is a page about ones that change gender rather than being both at once.

While I'm not disputing that animals can form friendships with the same sex, animals have an instinct to mate to prevent them from going extinct.

To keep the species alive, they just have to produce more offspring than are killed.
So yes, they certainly need to have enough opposite-gender pairs to do that. But that doesn't rule out occasional oddities.

Just like unusual colors show up, so do unusual behaviors sometimes. The ones that work well become more common, and the ones that don't work well stay rare or die out (colors that are easily seen by predators, behaviors that prevent them from producing offspring, etc.) But such things do still pop up on occasion, even in wild animals.

And when humans start selecting for things, they breed for many traits that would die out in the wild, including broad-breasted turkeys that require artificial insemination because they cannot mate naturally, hens that do not go broody to hatch their eggs, and pigeons with a beak shape that prevents them from feeding their own offspring.

Also, many animals used for breeding are managed in a way that keeps them from choosing their own mate anyway-- penning pigeons in pairs, or hens in a group with a single rooster, or using artificial insemination on dairy cows. So there is very little selection for animals that can choose and attract a mate.

So even though something would prevent an animal from reproducing under natural conditions, such things can still occur at a small rate in the wild, and they can occur and even become common in animals that are raised by humans.

 

[azygous]

I'm holding out for the first documented case of parthenogenesis in a hen.