What the hell is going on with my Silver Sebright?

[TerrorBird]

I've had my Silver Sebright hen (Silvette) for seven years or so. She used to look completely normal. For the last year, she has started growing strange new neck feathers that make her look very spikey when she fluffs them out. She's lost some tail feathers and lots of breast and wing feathers too. She has tried to crow too, but she's definitely a hen! She's not being picked on and her diet has not changed. Our other hens are completely normal. What is going on with my Silvette?!

 

[tiki244]

To put it mildly....you should change Sylvette's name to Silvester as She has changed into a He. He will not be able to fertilize eggs and will never lay again. But this is not entirely unheard of in chickendom.


eta and your sebright is partially something else crossed with a sebright as sebright males have hen feathering. And sebrights have rose combs, Yours appears to have a single comb. And it is red.

 

[TerrorBird]

Thanks for your help! I was wondering all along if that was a possibility. It's just very strange!

 

[nicalandia]

Thanks for your help! I was wondering all along if that was a possibility. It's just very strange!

not strange at all, we humans are by default females and if anything bad happens to our Y chromosomes(males) or we stop producing testosterone we then we turn in to a pseudo females, but on chickens the case is reversed.. a hen will turn into a pseudo rooster if the hen stopped producing estrogen

 

[TerrorBird]

To put it mildly....you should change Sylvette's name to Silvester as She has changed into a He. He will not be able to fertilize eggs and will never lay again. But this is not entirely unheard of in chickendom.


eta and your sebright is partially something else crossed with a sebright as sebright males have hen feathering. And sebrights have rose combs, Yours appears to have a single comb. And it is red.

I think it's a sebright/porcupine cross.

But seriously, the local feed store is not to be trusted when they're telling you what you're buying, it seems. Thanks for telling me!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Femal chickens are born with two ovaries, but in virtually all of them, only one works. If the working one gets injured and stops, the hen will begin to take on male characteristics, which include growing male patterned plumage. Now since sebrights are supposed to be henny feathered, not sure exactly how that will play out, but I do think the feather changes you are seeing are that.

 

[tiki244]

I think it's a sebright/porcupine cross.

 

[flewdacoop]