Puffin Croft hen transitions sex to become a rooster and fathers chicks
A Caithness petting farm has an unusual tale to tell of a hermaphrodite chicken who changed sex from a female hen to a male rooster.
Rexi the Brahma chicken recently passed away at the age of eight but in her final years, she transitioned sex to become a he and went on to father offspring as a fully functioning male bird.
Cara Young from Puffin Croft near John O’Groats explained: “It can happen with chickens and ducks.
“It can also happen where males can turn female too though. I’ve never seen that myself. I think with chickens it’s a bit easier as they don’t have penises just vents, so there is nothing to ‘grow’.
“To mate, a male rubs his vent against the female and releases the semen to fertilise the eggs. It’s a hormonal chemical change more than anything.”
Cara said she was dumbfounded when Rexi “cockadoodledood” one day. “That’s when I realised and my jaw dropped to the ground. Later he went on to father chicks.”
The British Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT) says that hermaphrodite chickens are a “well-documented fact”. Female chickens (hens) can take on the characteristics and behaviour of male chickens and essentially turn into cockerels, it states.
“Female chickens only have one functioning ovary, although they are born with two. The right ovary becomes dormant in every hen – it is not defined as an ovary or testes and is a non-functioning sex organ – the left ovary is responsible for egg production,” says the BHWT.
“In some circumstances, where a health-related issue such as an ovarian cyst or adrenal gland disease is present, the left ovary shrinks. As the hen ends up without a left ovary, the dormant right sex organ starts to grow but may take the form of male testes.”
The resulting “he/she” will develop the large comb and wattles of a cockerel and may start to crow. The BHWT adds: “However, she will not be a fully functioning cockerel, nor will she lay eggs.”
However, Cara says that Rexi, after turning into a cockerel, did mate with hens and somehow managed to father chicks. “I’m sure it’s quite rare. I don’t know statistics, only my own situation.”
Rexi may be gone but he/she lives on through a healthy brood of chickens that can be seen at the popular animal petting farm.
For more info on Puffin Croft visit: www.puffincroft.com and there is a Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/puffincroft
Puffin Croft is open daily throughout the year from 10am – 5pm in the summer and until 2pm in the winter.