Weird Hen with spurs? rooster?

[Crazyhenlady]

Awhile back I had a little Brown Leghorn who was over a year old. I had her for 3 weeks and she was a little trouble maker so I gave her away for "free" on craigslist.It was winter so I wasn't expecting a lot of eggs but thought she may have laid one or two but wasn't 100% I ran into the woman who I gave the "hen" to and she said the hen is a rooster because it has spurs. Neither one of us ever saw it crow or try to mate. It had NO other characteristics of a rooster besides the spurs. Any ideas of why this could be?

 

[debid]

Some hens have spurs. I bought 4 Welsummer pullet chicks from the same guy and all 4 developed spurs in the first year. Not tiny nubs, either... This girl isn't even a year old yet and she's the mid-size spur wielder of the group:



The thing with Brown Leghorns (and Welsummers) is that the body coloring is completely different in males and females. That is what you go by, not whether she happens to have spurs. The above chicken lays big, beautiful terracotta eggs with speckles on a regular basis.

 

[Crazyhenlady]

That's what I thought. I told the woman that and she insisted that it wouldn't have spurs. It looked nothing like a BLH rooster but then I started to question if it was even really a Leghorn and maybe some other breed. She gave the "rooster" away but I still think it was a hen. She had a lot of chickens so she probably didnt notice if she was laying or not.

 

[Highlander]

She was probably older than 1 when you got her, which would explain both the spurs and the lack of eggs.

 

[nurse_turtle]

Spurs or no spurs, a BL rooster is OBVIOUS.

 

[Crazyhenlady]

I started to think she was right because she was a true farm girl who had chickens for years and a lot of them. Just wanted confirmation that I was right to think (know) she was a hen.

 

[Crazyhenlady]

Ya, you're probably right!

She was probably older than 1 when you got her, which would explain both the spurs and the lack of eggs.

 

[goosehead]

When we started with chickens we had some hamburgs. We thought one was a rooster cause it had spurs, and one day she laid an egg.
So you have two options, a rooster lays eggs (well probably not

)
or girl chicken CAN have spurs ( right answer )
My neighbor down the road has some girls with spurs.


Yes hens/pullets can have spurs!!

 

[hdowden]

if you have a pic of her i would love to see it...as for the spur issue yes hens can have spurs although i have mainly seen them only on game hens and once or twice on none games. roosters are very obivious with their hackles, saddles, and sickle feathers (unless ur looking at a seabright lol).

 

[JulieNKC]

My white leghorn has a fairly impressive set of spurs. She also lays an egg every day almost.