I raise chickens .. Not many, but for long enough to have learnt a bit about them ... I have tried several breeds and a couple of years ago bought some Old Swedish Rhode Island Red eggs .. and I raised a rooster and 2 hens from them..
In the Spring I took a couple of my own fertilised Rhodie eggs and let my broody hen hatch them ....
Soon after they hatched the behaviour differences in the chicks were quite obvious ... and I guessed I had one rooster and one hen, and over the next few months they grew just as I had expected ...
My little hen looking like this .... just as she should ...
Now it's been an unusually warm and very grey autumn and winter, and I kind of 'lost track' of my individual chickens (they all have names) as I just fed them and cared for them as a group, as they mostly chose to be in their hen shed ...
but over the weekend ... I realised one of my 'hens' was missing .... I did a head count and all my birds were present and correct but my little Rhodie Hen had grown MUCH bigger and was now sporting a large comb and wattle ... and looked very much more like the roosters
I was as confused as my chicken .... 'She' still exhibits hen behaviour, doesn't crow, or try to mate ... but she also doesn't lay eggs ... but she looks like a rooster ...
So I have spent some time googling this phenomena ... and although rare ... it is believe it or not a 'thing' that some hens can 'become' roosters ...
Something I had certainly never heard of ....
Hen To Rooster Link
So after much discussion ... we have decided that as the unique individual they are .... my chicken gets a free trans gender pass into safe pet-hood..
Luckily being Swedish we actually have a gender neutral pronoun we can use ... HAN is HE
HON is SHE ..... and would you believe HEN is either ... 😂
Happy Hump Day
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