Is My Hen Turning Into A Henster?

[Teila]

Ok, so I am officially scratching my head and I have no idea what is going on!

Dusty came back from a moult-break to laying. She laid 19 eggs between 13th May and 2nd July and has now not laid for 8 days.

Her comb has good colour, she looks healthy, poops normal, nice green sheen on her black feathers etc. Dusty is a 2 year and 5 month old Bantam Langshan. Dusty has never been broody.

Dusty woke me up with crowing on Wednesday morning.

Dusty is now ‘standing guard’; she is ‘watching’ while everyone else is scratching and having fun in the garden AND she is picking up bits of grass, bugs etc and calling over the others and feeding them! We gave them all meal worms and Dusty took hers and called over KiKi and gave it to her! Dusty NEVER shares food; especially not meal worms!

She is also ‘rumbling’ a lot; if that makes sense…pacing around, rumbling at things, growling under her breath.

Her behaviour is kind of typical broody except that she is not being grumpy with the rest of the flock, more protective and feeding them; we are talking about 4month to 2.5 year old chickens.

Blondie is definitely going to lay her first egg back from a break very shortly and is wandering around the garden telling everyone about it; she is making frequent trips to the nest box and has been chowing into the shell grit. I think she is going to lay today.

Anyways, Dusty is following her around, if Blondie goes into the coop, Dusty follows and stands there, rumbling, no aggression towards Blondie, basically just that. If Blondie leaves the nest box, Dusty follows.

I have never had a rooster so do not know what typical rooster behaviour is; but I am wondering if she is in fact, turning into a Henster?

 

[junebuggena]

It is possible for a hen to start to look and act like a rooster. Usually it is caused by a tumor or some other serious problem in the functioning ovary. She could just be taking the dominant position in the flock. Unless she starts sprouting male saddle feathers, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

 

[GitaBooks]

When there aren't any roosters around, sometimes older hens will take over the position, even crowing and beginning to look like them. She'll make a good grandmother to the others, helping protect them from predators. Grumbling, crowing, and calling others over are all what roosters do.

I hope this helps. Best of luck!

 

[Teila]

Hey junebuggena and GitaBooks

Many thanks for your responses. Dusty is and always has been 2IC in the flock, the matriarch is Cilla, my 2.5 year old bantam Cochin.

Dusty still respects Cilla’s authority.

As I said, I have no experience with roosters and I am just trying to work out what is going through Dusty’s little chicken head.

Do roosters typically rule the roost or can they be ruled by the matriarch hen?

I know that is a silly question because Dusty is not a rooster; so I am dealing with a whole different kettle of fish

The flock did recently increase from 4 to 6 with the hatching of the two 4 month old little ones; do you think the increase in flock size may have spurred Dusty on to take on that rooster role? (Assuming that there is not an issue; tumour etc)

 

[GitaBooks]

I've heard of some matriarchs ruling over roosters. In my experience, roosters do have some authority, but really they don't seem to be in the same pecking order as the hens. The hens love their roosters and the rooster loves his hens, they don't tend to boss one another around that much.

Did one of your chickens hatch out the chicks? It could be that having chicks around did start her thinking a rooster was needed to protect them.

 

[captjinx]

This is not really an answer but I just had to thank you for your question for I'm going through the same thing. I got 7 sexed pullets and everything was fine until I got 2 roosters and then one of my hens is looking more and more like a rooster, she looks like a rooster from the neck down and her head is still like a hen. She's not crowing but strutting around the pen. I thought I was going nuts. I thought I was one of the first with a transgender chicken.

 

[junebuggena]

How old are your 'sexed pullets'?

 

[Teila]

Thanks again GitaBooks

Now you mention it, even though Dusty is 2IC, she has never really been one for the whole pecking order and gets along with everyone.

Yes, the chicks were hatched here by Cilla (the matriarch) and Dusty was the first to accept them when they were integrated into the flock (approx 4 weeks ago). With the matriarch being their mum, the integration went pretty smoothly but while Blondie (3rd in line) and LuLu (4th in line) still take the chance to put the little ones in their place, Dusty has never had an issue with them.

I put this down to her being 2IC but I am now wondering if this is not all part of her turning into a Henster.

Very bizarre!!

Tee hee captjinx …. I am calling Dusty my gender confused chicken or Henster.

We have not had roosters here as we are not allowed to have them. It is going to be interesting if Dusty starts to crow more and more; wonder how the rules interpret that one lol

I will keeping posting on the thread with any updates or changes; might be of assistance to you or someone else if they are going through the same thing.

 

[Teila]

Thought I would share a picture of Dusty (or is that Dustin

lol):



And the flock:

 

[captjinx]

About 4 months now. Just waiting for them to start laying shortly