Kitchen Garden Forum

Todays Daily Mail carries the story of a 14 Month Wyandotte that spontaneously changed sex from Hen to Cock.
I had never heard of this, but Adrian Kemp, Secretary of the National Federation of Poultry Clubs is quoted as saying this happens very rarely "I've only seen it once in 55 years". An unanmed source quotes the odds as 1 in 10,000 hens.

So given those odds, has anyone had a bird this happened to?

Sort of. I had a pair of Red Jungle Fowl for 10 years before Alex (male) died of old age. Sweetie was on her own for about 6 months as I decided she was too old to import new chickens; she also died of old age.

During the last 2 months of her life, there was no doubt about the fact that she was trying to crow. She'd get up on the high perch, throw her head back, chest out and go for it. I had heard about this sex change thing before and I did wonder at the time, but then she died and I forgot about it.

Yes - I had a leghorn hen who was top of the pecking order and she crowed her head (or should that be comb and wattles) off. She also laid an enormous number of eggs. I didn't have a cockerel so perhaps that had something to do with it.

Mine was clearly confused as she crowed about laying eggs!

I have a couple of hens that sometimes think that they are cocks and behave in a most inappropriate way towards their sisters. I posted on a poultry site about this and was told that it wasn't uncommon.

John

I think if the hens have no cock bird then the hen at the top of the pecking order sort of takes over.

The bird written about, ceased laying, grew larger wattles, started mounting (treading?) the hens, etc, etc.

Apparently a damaged ovary starts to produce male hormone and converts the other ovary into a testicle.

So what started the thread was genuine sex-change, not compensatory behaviour.