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This picture gives me really weird feelings inside.
Puts a new slant on the chicken / egg dilemma, I think
Originally posted by kinda kurious
Granted I'm no expert but I'd say it is a male. I can see his McNuggets.
Sorry, that was a bad yolk.
[edit on 21-4-2010 by kinda kurious]
In a normal female bird only the left ovary is active. Due to infections or other problems, this ovary may cease to function. In that case the right overy becomes active, but for some reason produces more testosterone and causes the bird to develop male plumage and secondary sex characteristics, although it will never become fully male. Hens may begin to crow.
A sex-change chicken which started life as an egg-laying hen has turned into a crowing cockerel.
The pet, called Freaky, spent eight months laying dozens of eggs until she crowed like a cock bird one morning.
Over the next few weeks, she sprouted a scarlet comb, grew red flaps called wattles under her chin and tufty tail feathers - all attributes of cockerels.
Owner Jo Richards, of Saltford, near Bristol, said: "I've kept chickens for 10 years but I've never heard of such a thing."
Animal experts said Freaky's sexchangewas a one-in-10,000 rarity. It happens when a damaged ovary causes the hen's testosterone levels to soar, turning the remaining ovary into a testicle.
Freaky, a silver-laced Wyandotte hen, now crows every sunrise, aggressively attacks other males and even tries to mate with his old female friends.
Victoria Roberts, of the Poultry Club of Great Britain, said: "This is very, very rare. I've been keeping poultry for 35 years and I've seen it only once."
Can chickens really change gender?
WILLIAM SPURR, COLCHESTER
It depends on how you define gender. The chromosomes that normally control the physical differences between male and female are fixed at the moment of fertilisation and cannot change. But the sex chromosomes work by coding for enzymes that affect the bird’s development in the egg and during its life. These enzymes are sensitive to temperature and if eggs fertilised with male chromosomes are cooled by a few degrees for three days after laying, the relative activity of the sex hormones will favour development of female characteristics. (In reptiles, temperature is entirely responsible for determining sex.) In about 10 per cent of cases, this cooling will produce a chicken with a fully functioning and reproductively fertile female body-type; even though the chicken is genetically male.
Originally posted by berenike
reply to post by Zmurfix
Well, I know bog all about chickens so I was prepared to accept it as a rooster
(Believe it or not, my neighbour's rooster is squawking his head off as I am making this post).
In the interests of fair play here are some pictures of roosters (roosters according to google) so we can make a comparison:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/dba88940d1da.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4a632a574861.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/81c2a9894069.jpg[/atsimg]
Here's Gianni again:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1af9f752c225.jpg[/atsimg]
Sorry I couldn't find any pictures of the same breed. See Aeon's video below which was posted during the time it took me to find and post these pictures.
It's hard to see Gianni's feet properly and his tail is tucked into the back of his box, but I think he looks male.
[edit on 21-4-2010 by berenike]