Help. What possibly be wrong?

[duluthralphie]

As you can tell by my profile I am a professional chicken wrangler. I know everything chicken.. I am now stumped by an occurrence.


About 2 weeks ago I removed all my hens from my young rooster pen. It was getting time. I figured before long the pullets would get jumped by the roosters. I figured I still had a month or more until POL hit.

This morning when checking my roosters I found this on the feed bunk.




Mt question is this: Has anyone else ever had a rooster lay eggs? How long will the rooster lay eggs? Are they edible? Is it possible for a rooster to self identify as a pullet? What should I do now?


If you are tempted to say I made a mistake, please don't, as I have not made a mistake since 1973.

 

[Newmamabear]

I vote you thank your rooster profusely and then thank your lucky stars that you're gettin some brekkie materials from such an upstanding fella!

 

[Newmamabear]

As a side note, my rooster does not lay any eggs, but neither do my hens soooo....

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
Could you have a chimera in the rooster pen? I know they happen in poultry but don't know about their egg laying ability.
from this article it seems a male chicken with a female brain ( one type of chimera) will look like a cock but will also lay eggs.
http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2372 ( egg laying is discussed under the subtitle "reproductive characteristics".
FF=female with female brain
FM=female with male brain
MF=male with female brain ( what you may have, interesting, they can also fertilize hens))
MM= male with male brain.
Best,
Karen
Might be a good idea to trap nest your roosters and cull a chimera if you find him.
Or he may be fertilizing your hen and I don't know if this is genetic.
I have found researchers to be wanting to discuss their work. Maybe see if there is email addy
for the authors of this article. I think they might be real interested to see if you might have a
chimera here. Might even be able you help you ID one in the group w/o trap nesting, if a he/she is there.