Kitchen Garden Forum

One of my Light Sussex hens seems to be changing sex. I've long maintained that one of them has never laid an egg, so perhaps it's this one (can't tell them apart).

Anyway, I noticed that one of the girls had incredibly long toenails and wondered if that's why she was picking up her feet so high when she was walking. Then I realised she was picking up her feet because she had quite long spurs. Finally it dawned on me that the girls don't have spurs and further inspection revealed that she's growing male tail feathers. My neighbour has been worring about one of them "making a funny noise" lately, so it would appear she's also trying to crow!

I've heard of this happening, but never thought I'd see it

Hi Chantal,
Lets hope that it is not catching and jumps the species barrier!
JB.

Hi Chantal, has the alarm clock suddenly became obsolete ?

Dear Johnboy, with some of the funny fellows that seem to keep turning up on the ever worstening television, i think it might already have happened.

Hi Chantal

[tongue in cheek mode]Your language is not up-to-date! Your title should read "Transgender chicken". S/he is not "changing sex"; s/he is undergoing "gender reassignment"! [/tongue in cheek mode]

At least those are the terms I now see used.

Seriously, though, this is not unknown.

http://howtokeepchickens.blogspot.com/2 ... hange.html

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKChange.html

As for the spurs, I have a number of hens with spurs, and they lay, or did lay till they got too old.

My problem is Lesbian Ducks!

Three one year old white Campbells are very wary of the drakes and prefer to mount each other. They still lay an egg each a day. I know cows regularly mount other cows, but I have never seen it in ducks.

Oh it just gets worse! Lesbian ducks? We had a pair of gay ducks once, Adam and Steve...

I did think of putting Transgender Chicken, but decided it sounded too PC

Ms/Mr chicken is now growing a proper comb and walking very carefully as she/he keeps tripping over her/his new spurs.

Chantal wrote:Ms/Mr chicken is now growing a proper comb and walking very carefully as she/he keeps tripping over her/his new spurs.

So walking like bloke wearing his first pair of stilettos?

peter wrote:

Chantal wrote:Ms/Mr chicken is now growing a proper comb and walking very carefully as she/he keeps tripping over her/his new spurs.

So walking like bloke wearing his first pair of stilettos?

With a football between his knees!

Selsey, who has been on loan as a broody, came home last night and is giving her/him some very odd looks. Could be trouble in the old chicken shed

Hard though it is to believe, I now seem to have a second chicken on the change.

I have one in full moult with spurs and a second who is growing new feathers including her lovely cock tail and a comb which has suddenly sprouted so much it's flopping over.

What the hell is going on here? If the chances of a chicken having a sex change is around 1:100,000 what are the odds on 2 out of 5 girls doing just that?

Dear Chantal, i wonder if buying a gay Cockerel might help the situation.

Hi Chantal,

This is very intriguing. How old are they?

Chantal, when converting the shed into a hen house did you remove all traces of the nuclear research materials you had previously stored in there?

Chantal this is absolutely fascinating...I'm all agog!
Cheers.

They're three years old Light Sussex hens. I was given them aged around 8 months when they had already started laying. Although I believe one of them has never laid an egg, two of them must have as I sometimes had 4 eggs in a day (Selsey and Penelope provided the other 2).

I'll take some more photos if I can, but they have a habit of diving under shrubs etc when the camera comes out

They are free range in my garden and in addition to grass etc, they have layers pellets and kibbled maize plus bits of left overs from the kitchen. Nothing at all containing nuclear fuel!

And Elaine, you are not the only one who is agog

Ooh, this gets more exciting - can't wait for the photos!