How did my hen manage to hatch her eggs?

[Cobra96]

'Egg-Maculate' Conception? Stray rooster, no question whatsoever. You don't have to hear neighbor roosters or even know if any are around, because they migrate. Distant, backwoods farm here. We've had early a.m. migrating roosters show up for decades. Then, off they go. The natural will to reproduce has no limits, even in chickens. I've seen stray roosters, alone in the woods, but never in cold winter with snow. So depends on what time of year this took place.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Interesting. If you free range them, my guess is stray/feral roo. If he lives out in the woods, maybe you don’t catch him crowing so he doesn’t attracted unwanted predator attention. Waiting to see answer on egg color as well. You also may think no one comes into the yard/chicken enclosure but there is a still a chance someone snuck back there without your knowing and slipped eggs under as a prank. Also haven’t seen this mentioned, but it’d be crazy if she ended up hatching eggs from another bird species (randomly went out and sat on some turkey/quail eggs...other ground nesting birds)

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

'Egg-Maculate' Conception? Stray rooster, no question whatsoever. You don't have to hear neighbor roosters or even know if any are around, because they migrate. Distant, backwoods farm here. We've had early a.m. migrating roosters show up for decades. Then, off they go. The natural will to reproduce has no limits, even in chickens. I've seen stray roosters, alone in the woods, but never in cold winter with snow. So depends on what time of year this took place.

Sounds like near where you live is a popular rooster dumping ground.

 

[angela0408]

While the other hen may have swapped genders, which is highly unusual, she would have stopped laying l, but she would not be able to “father” chicks. Someone must be playing a trick on you, you have wild roosters in the area, or other wild game birds that could have done the deed.

be interesting to see what they grow up looking like.

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.liv...hange-chicken-gertie-hen-bertie-cockerel.html

 

[JacinLarkwell]

OP has been gone almost a weel, pretty sure this was all a leg pulling

 

[JadeFarms]

OP has been gone almost a weel, pretty sure this was all a leg pulling

Yea I agree smh

 

[GardenDmpls]

Here is a study on development of unfertilized eggs, called parthenogenesis, in poultry:
https://rep.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/rep/155/6/REP-17-0728.xml

Since I have a science background (taught in a high school veterinary science program), I will summarize for you. Generally, there are some unfertilized chicken eggs that will start basic development, but development is usually disorganized and will stop when incubation begins. There was one type of chicken in a study, the dark Cornish, whose unfertilized eggs had a .03% hatch rate (3 out of 10,000 eggs). No other chicken variety in the study had eggs develop for more than a few days. Based on this, one chick might be extremely rare, but possible. Two, would be highly improbable.

Another thought: we have feral roosters (unowned, wild birds) in our suburban area of Far Rockaway, NY. I have never seen one, but my friends have. It is possible that there may have been one in your area that you have not seen. It may have been around at the right time and then moved on or have been killed by a dog or eaten by a predator. That would be more likely than two chicks created by parthenogenesis.

 

[countryladyNH]

And we now have entered into the twilight zone.....

Funniest, best comment of all!!!!!!

 

[Chicalina]

All this talk of hens 'becoming' roosters and 'changing sex' and lol 'gender transformations'

Chickens can have physiological problems and hormone dysfunctions just like other species. It can be evident from their appearance and behaviours and confirmed by necropsy/biopsy. They don't actually change sex. Sex is determined by DNA which occurs at fertilisation.

I wonder if one of the OP's hens is not actually a hen after all.

 

[JadeFarms]

Well she hasn’t been on here anymore. There was no reason for her to keep the eggs under the hen since she thought they were unfertile and she says they haven’t changed gender and she don’t have feral Roos. I think this was all just a joke.