Sex change !

[Liza]

Any ideas please, one of my buff orpington, POL 23 weeks old, has quite a large comb (he /she) has also been jumping on my lavender araucanas. I took the bird back to the chicken man and he assured me Bumble was a girl and until the first moult they can be a bit confused of their sexuality

Also one of the araucanas (definitely a hen as shes laying eggs) keeps stretching her neck and doing what I can only describe as a silent cock a doodle do !

so... I thought I would ask the experts !

Thanks in advance

[RichmondHens]

Is the Orp actually mating with the Araucana? If it is then it's definitely a boy! Girls DO NOT do this, and they DO NOT get confused about their sexuality. Your chicken man is just trying to avoid taking the bird back! However, he/she may just be bossing the others around, but unlikely, given that Orps are gentle souls and are more likely to be bossed around by others. You could always post a close up pic on here and we can all try and sex it, but it sounds like a boy to me.

Confused about the Araucana. Are you sure she is not exhibiting the signs of gapeworm - open mouth, looking like she is trying to swallow or yawn, intermittent gasping for breath? Have you wormed them since you had them?

[Liza]

Ok posted a pic of Bumble( he/she) tries to pin them down ?

I wormed 4 weeks ago ?

[MaureenHall]

My first guess, judging by the neck feathers is that it's a boy, sorry

[RichmondHens]

It's not a great pic but from what I can see I think I agree with Maureen.

[Chocolate Brownie]

there was thing in the BHWT magazine about an ex-bat that was rescued turned into a boy. It said that it was very rare. has he/she/it ever laid an egg before?
WikiAnswers - Can a chicken change its gender

[frias]

One of my ex-batts used to jump on top of the others as a dominance thing. She definately laid eggs and most of the time was very placid but if one of the others tried to take her food she used to jump on them and hold their head down. She also had a very large comb and wattle and I did wonder if she was changing sex! She never crowed though.
Liza what did you worm with? Some wormers don't work on gapeworm.

[Liza]

Hi Frias, yes Bumble is holding the others head down.

I really am confused as the chicken man has promised that she is a girl when I took her back, he said if there is no cockerel in the flock some times one hen will get a bit domineering.

Flubenvet ?

[frias]

Flubenvet should work on gapeworm. It's Verm-x that doesn't. You can worm again after a month. My Wellsummer didn't start laying until about 33 weeks old but they are late developers. I'm no expert on sexing so if Maureen and Richmond think your girl is a boy they are probably right! I knew my ex-batt was a girl no matter what her behavior was like.

[Hilary B]

I have heard of the occasional hen turning into a cockerel. I read something about how it can happen. Unlikely in a young bird, but not impossible.
Basically (the book said) a hen has 2 ovaries, but only uses 1. If that stops working (for any of a variety of reasons) the second one starts up, but may start up as a testicle, resulting in the hen turning into a cockerel.

[Liza]

Well Bumble started crowing !

You ladies were right.

So I took him back to the chicken man and he gave me another girl.

I am really upset he was so friendly.

The new girl as had a bit of a hard time form my others which I expected and hopefully they will settle down.

I didn't even ask what would happen to Bumble as I couldn't bare to be told that he would be dispatched, and now I am crying over a bl**dy cockerel !

[Glutton4...]

Sorry to hear that, Liza. My Rooster started out friendly....



(No, RT, I haven't eaten him yet!)

[frias]

You ladies were right.

So I took him back to the chicken man and he gave me another girl.

I am really upset he was so friendly.

The new girl as had a bit of a hard time form my others which I expected and hopefully they will settle down.

I didn't even ask what would happen to Bumble as I couldn't bare to be told that he would be dispatched, and now I am crying over a bl**dy cockerel !

Hope your new girl settles in quickly. I cried buckets over my 3 cockerels when they had to go. Hopefully your chicken man can rehome Bumble.

[jessmorris]

One of my ex-batts used to jump on top of the others as a dominance thing. She definately laid eggs and most of the time was very placid but if one of the others tried to take her food she used to jump on them and hold their head down. She also had a very large comb and wattle and I did wonder if she was changing sex! She never crowed though.
Liza what did you worm with? Some wormers don't work on gapeworm.

Some of my bantams jump on each other and pin the others down by their necks. They are deffo ALL girls!!