hen turn to rooster???

[stephanie1992]

can chickens switch sex? i have a rhode island red bantam hen thats 2 yrs old, going through molting, wattles turing red, shes rose comb, tail feathers growing long and now green. So is it possible for a female to switch to a male?? im new to chickens

 

[featherful]

No. the only animal I know of that can switch sex is a fish or shrimp or something... but, there will always be a dominant chicken so even in the absence of a rooster there will be a dominant hen. If it was a personality problem that would help.. but, I don't know... I hope at least I will bump you up so some one else will tell you why she looks different.

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Wattles Turning Red, Black/Green and longer tail could be a sign of maturing in a Hen but I will ask this, has she ever laid a egg? If not I would also say that there is a possibility that it was always a Rooster and bay have been a late bloomer.
Do you have a picture of the bird in question?

Here is a picture of one of my LF RC Red Hens and you can see Black/Green Tail and nice Red Wattles and Comb.

Chris

 

[gumbii]

Quote:
there are lots of animals that switch sex... some lizards, almost all frogs, all clownfish, most wrasse fish... the shrimp you're thinking about doesn't change sex, it clones itself... one shrimp can lay eggs and clone itself without a mate...

this doesn't talk about chickens, but it does say that sex change is natural, even in humans... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_change#Sex_change_in_animals


a thread like this always comes up every once in a while... someone has posted that their hen completely turned into a hen and started fertilizing eggs... it can happen, they just need to be born a Sequential Hermaphrodite...

 

[sourland]

Absolutely possible for a hen to change sex. Although infrequent, such changes are generally associated with ovarian tumors and/or abnormalities. I have a friend whose RIR hen went through gender transformation at 5 or 6 years old. Coincidentally it also coincided with molting. In appearance he/she became a rooster but never crowed.

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
well if some virus deemed the W chormosome useless or inactive then they assume the birds default sex which is Male... just like we guys are by default girls if something happen to our Y chromosome, but defaults ca´t reproduce...

 

[sourland]

Quote:
well if some virus deemed the W chormosome useless or inactive then they assume the birds default sex which is Male... just like we guys are by default girls if something happen to our Y chromosome, but defaults ca´t reproduce...

I'm guarding that Y chromosome.

He/she never exhibited rooster behavior. No crowing or mating the other hens - just developed hackle and sickle feathers and a long flowing 'rooster tail.'

 

[Zaxby's2]

I've heard a hen can gok through some hormonal thing where her wattles and comb get big, her feathers change look like a rooster, she get's spurs, sometimes crows, and will try and mate hens but can't because she doesn't have, well, you know.

 

[stephanie1992]

Quote:
Wattles Turning Red, Black/Green and longer tail could be a sign of maturing in a Hen but I will ask this, has she ever laid a egg? If not I would also say that there is a possibility that it was always a Rooster and bay have been a late bloomer.
Do you have a picture of the bird in question?

Here is a picture of one of my LF RC Red Hens and you can see Black/Green Tail and nice Red Wattles and Comb.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/33115_red_hen_-_iii.jpg


Chris

shes two years old, show bird, showed her before, laid eggs everyday but quit laying, i will take pics today.

 

[stephanie1992]

this is her, maybe shes just late maturing, this is the first molting ive seen her go through. does she still looke like a hen??
Shes still molting