I have an androgynous chicken

[CoconutCoffee]

I didn't know where/how to get her DNA tested. And other than the fact that Big Girl is a curiosity, it's never been important for me to know. I'm hoping/assuming the DNA test will show if she is Both genders? The site you linked sounds cheap and easy. Im gonna follow up to make sure the lab has good reviews, & if so I'm gonna do it!

I didn't know either until I saw a thread of someone trying to rehome silkies at a few weeks old. They said they had DNA tests done so knew they were roosters and posted the results. I've debated using this service and sending in a sample of a rooster as a test subject. I honestly have no idea what the test would show. If chickens can be intersex then maybe. Or she could have some kind of hormone imbalance caused by over or under developed sex organ.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Interesting! My first thought was immediately male. But after reading through it, it reminds me of a capon. Is it possible that a male's sex organs could be damaged in a way that caused them to not develop? Hmmm...

@casportpony any thoughts?

I left out one detail in my first post re Big Girl's behavior because I thought it merited a separate post in it's own right. Here goes.

I didn't address Big Girl's vocalizations. Up until last summer 2020 when she was 2+ years old, she had only vocalized by squawking like a hen, although her squawking was a bit deeper pitched than most of the other hens. And then one morn just before dawn, I heard an unusual sound coming from Big Girl's coop, where only hens resided at the time. I immediately had my suspicions, & shined my flashlight into the dark coop to confirm. Yep, Big Girl was "crowing." The sound was not the short, croaky sound of a young cockerel finding his voice. Her crow was fairly quiet and evenly pitched, and the time length was comparable in length to a mature rooster's crow. (I recorded her crowing on my old phone, but must have accidently deleted the recording. The sound was fairly faint and hard to hear anyway.)

Big Girl continued to let her inner man out just before dawn each morning for a few weeks time. I never heard her crow during the day. The sound never got louder or deeper during those several weeks, & to my ear they were made by a hen. Big Girl's crows made me giggle.

Then I put a new rooster in with her flock. (The other roosters had never paid her any mind). And soon found Big Girl hiding in a corner with a bloodied comb. The new rooster had obviously attacked her. Big Girl was very upset and i was too, and I permanently removed that rooster. That morn before the rooster attack was the last time Big Girl ever crowed. But there's a little more to the story.

Last fall 2020, I once again added 2 new roosters to her flock. Big Girl proceeded to walk around for the next few days clucking like a broody hen. "Cluck cluck cluck" everywhere she went. I've seen some of my other non-broody hens perform this behavior too. They Sound broody, but dont walk around holding their wings spread and their feathers all poofed out, & they definitely were not setting on eggs. I always assumed the broody imposters exhibited that behavior so the roosters would leave them alone.

The newly added roosters never bothered Big Girl. And after a few days she ceased her clucking. Those same roosters still reside in her flock, and they pay her no mind at all. Big Girl has never once "crowed" or "broody-clucked" since. Whatever gender(s) Big Girl is, she's definitely not dumb.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I just love this. I've cared for three like this now. None laid eggs, The roosters didn't bother them and they were accepted in their tribes just as they were.
I'll try and post a few pictures later.

I look forward to seeing your pictures.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I didn't know either until I saw a thread of someone trying to rehome silkies at a few weeks old. They said they had DNA tests done so knew they were roosters and posted the results. I've debated using this service and sending in a sample of a rooster as a test subject. I honestly have no idea what the test would show. If chickens can be intersex then maybe. Or she could have some kind of hormone imbalance caused by over or under developed sex organ.

I've seen some necropsy results where birds were found to have both male and female reproductive organs. I will be looking into whether DNA tests can also show if a bird has both genders. If so, i will proceed immediately because it will be interesting to know!

 

[ButtonHoarder]

I left out one detail in my first post re Big Girl's behavior because I thought it merited a separate post in it's own right. Here goes.

I didn't address Big Girl's vocalizations. Up until last summer 2020 when she was 2+ years old, she had only vocalized by squawking like a hen, although her squawking was a bit deeper pitched than most of the other hens. And then one morn just before dawn, I heard an unusual sound coming from Big Girl's coop, where only hens resided at the time. I immediately had my suspicions, & shined my flashlight into the dark coop to confirm. Yep, Big Girl was "crowing." The sound was not the short, croaky sound of a young cockerel finding his voice. Her crow was fairly quiet and evenly pitched, and the time length was comparable in length to a mature rooster's crow. (I recorded her crowing on my old phone, but must have accidently deleted the recording. The sound was fairly faint and hard to hear anyway.)

Big Girl continued to let her inner man out just before dawn each morning for a few weeks time. I never heard her crow during the day. The sound never got louder or deeper during those several weeks, & to my ear they were made by a hen. Big Girl's crows made me giggle.

Then I put a new rooster in with her flock. (The other roosters had never paid her any mind). And soon found Big Girl hiding in a corner with a bloodied comb. The new rooster had obviously attacked her. Big Girl was very upset and i was too, and I permanently removed that rooster. That morn before the rooster attack was the last time Big Girl ever crowed. But there's a little more to the story.

Last fall 2020, I once again added 2 new roosters to her flock. Big Girl proceeded to walk around for the next few days clucking like a broody hen. "Cluck cluck cluck" everywhere she went. I've seen some of my other non-broody hens perform this behavior too. They Sound broody, but dont walk around holding their wings spread and their feathers all poofed out, & they definitely were not setting on eggs. I always assumed the broody imposters exhibited that behavior so the roosters would leave them alone.

The newly added roosters never bothered Big Girl. And after a few days she ceased her clucking. Those same roosters still reside in her flock, and they pay her no mind at all. Big Girl has never once "crowed" or "broody-clucked" since. Whatever gender(s) Big Girl is, she's definitely not dumb.

That is so interesting!

 

[Painted Calls]

Following! Super interesting.

 

[Shadrach]

This was Gedit. She was about seven years old when she died in a pointless accident.
She never laid an egg, but once a year she would leave her tribe and go and sit on any eggs in her tribes coop for a few hours.
She was a big hen and one of the most gracefull movers I saw there.
She was also very mellow in temperament but from around one year old she remained the top hen until her death.
Everyone got on with Gedit; her own tribe and hens from the other tribes.
There was short time when she roosted on her own and Harold the main man in tribe two invited her to move in with him, his misses and their offspring. She stayed one night and never returned. Harold was always lovely to her.

I though she was lovely too and it broke my heart when she died

This is Gedit and her half sister Myth. They had the same mother but different fathers. They both developed that Marans cross grey with reduced copper in their hackles.

This is Gedit with her tribe. That's Myth (Gedit's half sister) front left. Donk, front right. Notch the tribes rooster. Gedit in the middle. Knock, Donk's daughter on the left. The white hen grooming by the palm stump is Dink. She was Donks grandmother. The hen in the dust bath at the back of the stump is Freya, another of Dink's daughters.
Freya did not like her mother Dink. I never worked out why. Freya made her mothers life a bit of a misery for mmany months. One evening when Freya had been behaving prticulalry badly Dink went up a tree to roost and Freya got in with Gedit. The rest had another coop.
In the morning when I opened up Freya staggered out of the coop, comb all ripped, black eye, blood and snot all over the back of her heas and a wing strain.
It seems that Gedit who was as mild as one could wish for had enough of Freya and beat the crap out of her.
Freya never bothered her mother again.

This is Lock one of Barking Brackets daughters. She never laid an egg either and also had a similar mellow personality to Gedit. There were three roosters in her tribe, none of them bothered her and when Barking Bracket hatched her next clutch if the cockerels went to bother Lock one of the senior rooster would sort him out. All the hens seemed to like her and she did have a couple of attempts at crowing. An interesting thing was she would wait to eat with Mag the most junior rooster until the hens had eaten

There was one other called Latch who got rehomed with her brother who apparently never laid an egg either and crowed along with her brother.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

@Shadrach , I loved seeing their photos and hearing their stories. Gedit and Lock are both hen-feathered (unlike Big Girl), but their extremely mellow personalities seem very similiar. (Except that Big Girl has never shown any interest whatsoever toward eggs or nest boxes, & I think her Extremely mellow temperament renders her incapable of fighting back if challenged/picked on. Luckily, except for that one time with the newly added rooster, she never has been bothered. Big Girl just IS.

I see the poll votes so far are split evenly that Big Girl is either male or both genders, but no votes for female. That is understandable based on her physical appearance. But based on her behaviors and appearance combined, my guess is she is "both." BTW her tail feathers that end with a couple of sort of looking sickle feathers have never changed either since she reached maturity fall of 2018. She's never had a full beautiful tail like a true rooster, just a tail that isn't hen-feathered but not fully male either.

I'm gonna wait until after the holidays mail rush is past, then get her DNA tested. It doesn't matter to me what "she" is; her mere presence has always made my days more interesting. But knowing her actual DNA genetics will be very interesting too . Meanwhile, if anyone sees this thread and has had their own birds' DNA tested (for any reason) and has good reviews for the lab they used, please let me know.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

@Shadrach , I loved seeing their photos and hearing their stories. Gedit and Lock are both hen-feathered (unlike Big Girl), but their extremely mellow personalities seem very similiar. (Except that Big Girl has never shown any interest whatsoever toward eggs or nest boxes, & I think her Extremely mellow temperament renders her incapable of fighting back if challenged/picked on. Luckily, except for that one time with the newly added rooster, she never has been bothered. Big Girl just IS.

I see the poll votes so far are split evenly that Big Girl is either male or both genders, but no votes for female. That is understandable based on her physical appearance. But based on her behaviors and appearance combined, my guess is she is "both." BTW her tail feathers that end with a couple of sort of looking sickle feathers have never changed either since she reached maturity fall of 2018. She's never had a full beautiful tail like a true rooster, just a tail that isn't hen-feathered but not fully male either.

I'm gonna wait until after the holidays mail rush is past, then get her DNA tested. It doesn't matter to me what "she" is; her mere presence has always made my days more interesting. But knowing her actual DNA genetics will be very interesting too . Meanwhile, if anyone sees this thread and has had their own birds' DNA tested (for any reason) and has good reviews for the lab they used, please let me know.

I use IQ Genetics (IQ bird testing) out of Miami, Florida. I have sent both eggshells and feathers, but blood from a toenail can also be used. Costs about $14. I have had 100% accuracy in the results. It is extremely important that the directions are followed to the letter, to avoid contaminating the samples. They have instructions on their website. They have pretty quick turnaround time, once they receive the sample in the mail. I have been very pleased with their coustomer service as well.
I, too have a younger bird, she is clearly female. 8 months old now. Laid her first egg, a gorgoeus teal green, in September and has not layed one since. I suspect she has ovarian failure. She does not exhibit any male characteristics at all. She lets the rooster mate her and once in awhile she will sit in the nest box. She is middle of the pecking order and gets along with all the other birds. She just gets to be herself and do whatever she does!

 

[Sortacountrychicken]

It's very interesting to see birds like this pop up. I don't know if there are studies to describe the differences but it is my understanding that the birds like Big Girl are males with nonfunctional testes while the birds that mostly appear to be female are indeed female without a functional ovary. Either way it is always interesting to see where they fall in the social interactions.