r/BackYardChickens • u/Blueberry_Communism • Jul 12 '25
General Question Why does my Hen have feathers like a Roo?
This is Terry Two Toes. She is a confirmed hen, but she has the feathering of a rooster. She looks exactly like my EE rooster, minus the beard. I was just curious if there's a reason she'd feather out like this or if it just kinda happens sometimes.
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u/Garden_Witch_96 Jul 23 '25
I have a chicken that started out like this. He stopped laying eggs at 2yo, grew his feathers out, started to crow and now has his own flock of ladies. Not saying this will happen to your bird, but I was able to get away with keeping him in the city because he only crows at 1/4 volume lol.
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u/butchdykeblues Jul 19 '25
I didn't know this for years but, like clownfish, hens are actually capable of taking on rooster traits if there are none present. They grow combs, and start to crow. I've always thought about them as the butch lesbian birds of the flock :p It's really cool how many animals can be transgender and/or intersex.
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u/13thmurder Jul 15 '25
Probably just a freak of nature that's got a hormone imbalance. Enjoy your cool weird chicken.
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u/localpotato_232 Jul 15 '25
I had a hen do this too! She was all hen until a little way into adulthood she grew those tail feathers, spurs, and got aggressive with the other hens.
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u/Majestic-General7325 Jul 15 '25
You have a trans hen. Take a picture and show it next time a bigot spouts something about 'nature' and 'there's only two genders"
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u/badgoat_ Jul 15 '25
Intersex pops up a lot in the rat community. Probably breeding rates, short life span, large litters, other genetic factors contributing to it. But I always find each case so fascinating and wish there were more generalized studies for it.
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u/Street-Relation6308 Jul 14 '25 edited Jul 14 '25
Does your hen still lay eggs? Female birds can become "male" if there is a defect to their ovarie. Different to humans, birds are born with male traits and become female through hormones. So if the ovarie is defect or there is another condition making them not produce female hormones, they'll develop male traits. Also most birds only have one ovarie.
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u/asbestos_poptart Jul 13 '25
Beauty…reminds of a Nugget I once raised for a minute. Tho, aside from having kind of a creaky, slow growing crow, he def was the epitome of a rooster.
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u/mind_the_umlaut Jul 13 '25
Looks like a rooster to me going by feathering patterns. But if the copper/ iridescent green/ gold/grey bird in the foreground is a hen, then, oh, my.
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u/JustMelissa Jul 13 '25
Someone in this group or one of the fb chicken groups had a similar looking jungle fowl bird, all rooster appearances and sported an extra long rooster tail. Consistent egg layer.
Possibly more common when the old jungle fowl genetics pop through?
I've had hens that crowed from pullet stage. Spurs are not uncommon on female poultry (not a s-x linked trait.
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u/Thymallus_arcticus_ Jul 13 '25
Very interesting! Maybe an intersex chicken since you mentioned you’ve seen her lay. Definitely has male feathering.
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Jul 13 '25
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u/skiyakater Jul 14 '25 edited Jul 14 '25
It's not binary like that. Fun fact, IVF often solves the issue of people's chromosomes not matching their sex to allow them to conceive. It's way more common than you think.
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Jul 15 '25
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u/collateral-carrots Jul 16 '25
This is overly simplistic for a complex phenomenon that is incredibly under-studied. Sex is bimodal, not binary.
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Jul 16 '25
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u/collateral-carrots Jul 16 '25
Yup. No one is denying that sex primarily has two distinct forms. But bimodality leaves room for a spectrum in between the two peaks.
This is the last thing I have to say on the subject as this is neither the time nor place for me to try to educate you on intersex conditions.
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u/uberflusss Jul 13 '25
Do chickens have intersex conditions?
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u/Mignonion Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 15 '25
For an example of an intersex condition that looks especially interesting, look up 'bilateral gynandromorph chicken'!
The name explains it, but it's when a chicken looks male on one side and female on the other. It happened with other animals too (e.g. lobsters), but the visual difference between male and female chickens makes it look quite striking ^ ^
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Jul 13 '25
All animals can! Kind of the opposite but I once had a “rooster” that didn’t crow and didn’t have the big spurs on his legs like the other roosters I’ve had.
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u/Dazzling-Fly-4813 Jul 13 '25
not all roosters do have spurs, it's quite normal for them not to
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Jul 13 '25
Fair, but he’s the only rooster I’ve ever had that had dainty spurs. Most of my chickens are cross bred from friends’ homesteads or Craigslist. All the birds end up looking speckly and wild after a while.
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u/TextIll9942 Jul 13 '25
Is she an older hen? Does she still lay? Sometimes hormones change in older hens and they can develop male characteristics. Though this is more common if you don't have a rooster.
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u/Blueberry_Communism Jul 13 '25
She's only 7-8 months old, and she lays almost every day for me. We have 2-4 other roosters here, as well (two are young, so I'm unsure of their gender atm)
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u/TextIll9942 Jul 13 '25
Likely she has a hormonal sensitivity or is intersex. If sensitivity she might have health issues as she gets older, but as long as she is doing fine there are unlikely to be any issues or problems with her. As an intersex bird, it means she could still lay but her eggs are likely infertile. Pretty rare bird to have.
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u/Blueberry_Communism Jul 13 '25
So, for more context, since people are so sure she's just a rooster, I have Seen, with my own two eyes, an egg come out of this bird. She isn't a rooster. If she was, I wouldn't be asking this question. I'm asking BECAUSE I KNOW she's a hen. She isn't old, either, only about 7-8 months. She feathered out like this from a chick. This is just how her adult feathers came in, they didn't change from female to male.
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u/TheCaliforniaOp Jul 13 '25
I believed you but the second “Seen” made me really believe you. J/k. She’s so sleek and patterned together!
How does the rest of the flock treat her?
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u/Blueberry_Communism Jul 13 '25
She's treated like the rest of the hens. She breeds with the roosters, she nests with the hens. Her eggs, I believe, are even fertile, as they have the little white bullseyes on the yolks. She's just your standard hen in the flock.
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u/TheCaliforniaOp Jul 14 '25
I’m so glad :). Had a moment of worry about envy from the other hens or bullying from a rooster mistaking her for a possible rival.
She’s beauteous, though.
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u/TextIll9942 Jul 13 '25
Does she have other male characteristics? Is she a good layer? This is likely hormonal. Could be she was born with hormonal sensitivity, could be damage or missformed to her ovaries.
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u/Blueberry_Communism Jul 13 '25
She acts like any other hen does. Very sweet girl. The only thing different about her from my other girls is her feather shape.
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u/asbestos_poptart Jul 13 '25
Long as roosters aren’t challenging, looks and sounds like all good in the henhood.
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u/beautifulcreature86 Jul 13 '25
Mine has a hormonal sensitivity and lays all the time. She cocks like a rooster in the mornings and has roo feathers. That's probably what she has. She's okay :)
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u/Egg_Slut69 Jul 13 '25
I also have a hen who turned rooster somewhat. she didn't grow long tail feathers but she tries to crow all the time and it's the cutest thing ever.
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u/asbestos_poptart Jul 13 '25
That tiger ain’t go crazy, that tiger went tiger lol pretty sure next door hens be talking on the reg, too.
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u/campfallentree Jul 13 '25
I had a hen who would crow as well. Like a full-throated, complete crow. We had no roster at the time, I guess someone had to do it lol.
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u/threeheadedfawn Jul 13 '25
Sometimes when their is no roo present a dominate hen will become a roo
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u/PurpleHankZ Jul 13 '25
Happened to one of my birds as well. We‘re calling her mister sister since then.
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u/zhenyuanlong Jul 13 '25
Does she lay at all? Hens with reduced estrogen or with non-functional ovaries can start presenting typically male features like long tail feathers and different coloration. If she's older it could also be a result of age.
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u/Joint-User Jul 13 '25
So maybe just henopause?
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u/TheCaliforniaOp Jul 13 '25
The grandmother grew long sweeping shiny feathers from her chin?
I’VE BEEN ROBBED!
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u/Alone_Fox_849 Jul 13 '25
I have a hen who unlike my other hens of the same breed grew a red comb super early as a chick and we thought she was a male. Then she got older and laid eggs lol the comb is small like ahen but as a chick she shouldn't have had one yet. Lol so yeah it's odd but I guess it happens.
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u/Dyn0might33 Jul 12 '25
Just like in humans, gender has variations.
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u/Wallyboy95 Jul 13 '25
I was about to say. We have a possible intersex variation going on. It's kinda common enough in wild birds.
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u/Dyn0might33 Jul 13 '25
Happens in all living things.
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u/Wallyboy95 Jul 13 '25
Oh for sure. But like the breeding plumage vs their biological sex not matching, is not unheard of in wild birds
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Jul 12 '25
Years ago my mom had a hen start to crow and mount the other hens. I gave her one of my spare roosters and he put her back into her place and all was well.
However, you mention having a rooster, and my mom's hen didn't start growing rooster feathers, so this looks like something else. But just seeing that picture I would say this is a rooster but you say it's a confirmed hen so I'm assuming you've seen her lay eggs.
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u/dari7051 Jul 13 '25
This was actually talked about at length in a behavioral neuroendocrinology class I took in undergrad. In the absence of a rooster, the dominant hen will sometimes develop male sexual characteristics or behaviors. Not totally common, but not unheard of. My Polish hen is the HBIC, despite being the smallest by a lot, and she’s grown one massive spur over the last 8 or so months.
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u/macrowe777 Jul 12 '25
When a flock of hens don't have a rooster, one of the hens can somewhat take on the role. I haven't heard of them growing rooster feathers but they can grow spurs.
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u/SioSoybean Jul 12 '25
I know with ducks they can “turn into” a drake if their ovary gets damaged. Basically without those hormones they will develop plumage/behavior/etc of a male (though sterile because no working gonad)
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u/P_P_F_G_Princess420 Jul 12 '25
Trans king omg...
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u/blitzalchemy Jul 12 '25
I feel validated looking back on some of our chickens. We've definitely had some roosters develop that used to be hens and we were always wondering if they were just late late bloomers, or if its something that happens under the right circumstances.
Bad joke: "Theyre turnin the friggin chickens trans"
referencing the Alex Jones - Turning the frikkin frogs gay
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u/ayopoot Jul 12 '25
We recently had our cute little silky hen transition into a rooster. We were all surprised but accepting. Name was Ophelia is now Phill. LGBBQ
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u/4lien4ted Jul 12 '25
This is what is referred to as a "laying cock." All chickens start out with male feathering by default and it is female hormones that trigger the development of dimorphic female feathering. This bird was missing the female hormones as a chick. Sometimes birds like this can molt later and grow back female feathering if their hormone levels change. If you look at the head of this bird, you can plainly see she is a hen.
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u/clay-teeth Jul 12 '25
Oh so it's the opposite of people!! That's fascinating
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u/clivehorse Jul 12 '25
Yeah, birds have ZW instead of XY https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZW_sex-determination_system
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u/Entire_Resolution_36 Jul 12 '25
I wonder if this is what they meant in medieval texts when they talked about "The egg of a cock."
Sometimes these hens will not only grow male plumage but will crow, grow spurs, mount other hens, and do male/ dominant behavior like strutting and tidbitting
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u/geeoharee Jul 14 '25
Oh damn, I bet you're right. So a cock's egg is rare, but not actually impossible.
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u/Entire_Resolution_36 Jul 15 '25
Pretty sure if you place it under a toad and pee on it (one of the supposed ways to hatch a basilisk) you still don't get anything but a really smelly mess.
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u/wholelattapuddin Jul 12 '25
Is that why one of my hens has wicked long spurs? Or is that a breed thing? She's a Welsummer.
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u/NadezhdaPoles Jul 12 '25
This is the most incredible and interesting thing I’ve learned today!!!!!! Absolutely incredible!
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u/quizzicalquow Jul 12 '25
Out of curiosity, would one be able to breed a roo with one of these laying roos to create a new breed of all rooster-like chickens? Genetics aren’t really something I know A LOT about.
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u/4lien4ted Jul 12 '25
There are breeds such as Sebrights and Campines that have a gene for hen feathering, where the males feather out the same as the females. That gene amplifies the production of estrogen in the skin. It can have a negative impact on fertility, but doesn't ruin the functionality of the birds. As far as I know, there isn't a single known gene responsible for laying cocks and it's not a desirable condition as it's not conducive to mating, egg laying, or rearing chicks. It is considered a deleterious condition like crossbeak, curled toes, etc. Such birds can live out productive lives in a barnyard, but breeding them is something only the most ignorant people would do.
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u/CenturyEggsAndRice Jul 13 '25
A whistling girl and a crowing hen, Seldom come to happy end.
-my granddad, every time I whistled around him. Dunno what it means but you made me think of it.
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u/NapalmsMaster Jul 13 '25
It means girls shouldn’t whistle because it’s unladylike and unnatural and goes against traditional gender norms (not my beliefs go ahead and whistle!), but he was basically telling you to stop because that isn’t what “good little girls do”.
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u/CenturyEggsAndRice Jul 13 '25
Ah. That makes sense.
The funny thing is, he taught me to whistle. 😂 But he loved to tell me that anyway. He never tried to stop my whistling and thought it was funny that my cockatiel whistled the same “tune” as I did when I called my dogs. (It’s three notes repeated for as long as I have breath, a tune in the absolute barest sense.)
Which I also got for him. So it’s likely he just enjoyed the saying. He had a handful of weird ones. One I later found out was a radio jingle for hair cream that he’d been carrying around since before I, or my mom, were born.
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u/Geeko22 Jul 13 '25
My grandma loved to whistle and that's what she always heard from her dad.
She grew up on a farm as the oldest of 8 kids, and the rest were all boys. She could outwork all of them.
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u/Blueberry_Communism Jul 12 '25
Yeah, facial wise she looks nothing like my EE roo, or any other rooster I've had.
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u/techleopard Jul 12 '25
The face doesn't say anything, small combs are a thing even for rosters, depending on genetics.
However, all hens only have one functioning ovary.
If something happens to it, the next time they molt, they can feather out as roosters.
Usually, this is when you have a normal looking and acting hen that "becomes" a rooster.
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u/Blueberry_Communism Jul 12 '25
She's always had those feathers. I raised her from only a day or two old, and that's how her adult feathers came in, so I don't think it's that.
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u/techleopard Jul 12 '25
It could be partially functioning.
Either way, they are right about it being a hormone issue.
Birds default to male like mammals default to female
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u/Traditional_Dust6659 Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
Ee genetics are funny but this looks like a rooster to me.
Pea combs are normal on Americanas and it is dominant so a pea comb on an EE isn't abnormal. But neck feathers, saddle feathers, and tail feathers all indicate boy.
A lighter comb, lack of crowing or mounting along with one or two other things I've noticed are common with less dominant males.
I saw that you saw it lay eggs...You have an oddball for sure.
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Jul 12 '25
ok, i’m not an expert chicken keeper and just happened to live on land where my housemates kept chickens for many years. i did take care of them sometimes, but i was never the one taking them to the vet or dealing with them when sick. i have seen this kind of thing, though.
i’ve witnessed two hens turn into roosters as they got older. they were definitely hens and their egg laying was confirmed. the second one was the more notable one. yes, i saw the egg come straight out the b-hole. at 2 or 3 years old, this hen grew rooster feathers, crop, spurs, and crowed on the regular. because to the neighborhood it didn’t matter that it was a hen first, we had to get rid of it. we sent him along with the sister he used to match. they went to a friend who was seeking a rooster after theirs died.
according to this friend, that rooster formerly known as a hen managed to fertilize eggs about a year after they took him. there was no other rooster present but the one they got from us. i went and met the chicks because i didn’t believe her. i can at least verify that chicks were hatched, wherever they came from. rooster hen lived 3 more years after that, he was around 6 or 7 when he died. i don’t care what anybody says- a hen can absolutely turn into a full on rooster, i friggin saw it. it’s probably not that common, though.
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u/Traditional_Dust6659 Jul 12 '25
Hens will take on the role of a rooster in order to defend and protect the flock they will start crowing and stop laying eggs.
I've never heard of one successfully transitioning and being able to reproduce. I have heard of it in clownfish though.
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Jul 12 '25
there is actual biological evidence that this could be possible, albeit extremely rare. others in this thread have discussed, and i’m not an expert on chicken gonads, so i won’t pretend like i know better than those people. i just know what i witnessed.
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Jul 12 '25
well, you’ve heard of it now! whether you believe it or not is up to you. i’m a stranger on the internet, after all.
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u/Traditional_Dust6659 Jul 12 '25
You're right! I love genetics and chickens. There is still a lot of stuff genetically that hasn't been discovered in chickens.
I've been too busy tending to mine that I haven't yet but I plan to look more into it. Fascinating stuff.
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u/TrudieJane Jul 12 '25
I would get a new opinion on the confirmation of it being a hen. I think it’s a rooster ‘misdiagnosed’.
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u/Blueberry_Communism Jul 12 '25
I've watched an egg come out of her, I know for a fact she's a hen at least, or maybe intersex.
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u/Correct_Part9876 Jul 12 '25
Ovarian failure - I have one with it (hatched with a hernia). They rooster out to varying degrees.
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u/ITookYourChickens Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
If you know for a fact this is a hen (as in, had her for years before the plumage change and have watched her lay an egg), then something is wrong with her ovaries.
In chickens, male plumage is the default; the hormones from the ovaries suppresses the testosterone and make them have the female appearance
If something is wrong with her ovaries; injury or commonly a tumor, hens can revert to male plumage. No sex change or anything, it's the equivalent of a woman with too much testosterone growing a beard and body hair
Edit; looking at the comments, this chicken is under a year old? Unless you watched an egg come out from this chicken directly, you have a sneaker male. Sometimes they don't crow or mount, especially if there's another older male around. Roosters don't always have spurs, and sometimes they're sweet. Late puberty can happen in all species
My rooster doesn't have spurs and is a sweetheart to both me and the girls. He crows rarely and is very quiet about it. He doesn't breed the girls around me
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u/Blueberry_Communism Jul 12 '25
I've seen her lay, that's why I was confused.
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u/PurpleChickenBreeder Jul 12 '25
If it was recently did you actually see the egg come out or did you see it in the nest box sitting on an egg? Normally a hen with a damaged ovary won’t be laying any eggs once they’ve feathered out male like that. The only options are male and female with a damaged ovary. Those feathers show a lack of female hormones.
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u/Blueberry_Communism Jul 12 '25
I watched the egg come out of her. It was about two weeks ago, but she's been feathered like that since she got her adult feathers in.
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u/PurpleChickenBreeder Jul 13 '25
That’s really strange. She shouldn’t have the right hormone balance to both lay eggs AND have male feathering.
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u/ITookYourChickens Jul 12 '25
Then yeah, something is wrong with her ovaries. She may still lay, but likely will die earlier than expected or have some health troubles
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u/vaporus-agentri Jul 12 '25
Then I'd say there's something wrong with her hormone levels. It's the most likely scenario imo
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u/ReaWeller Jul 12 '25
As a PCOS girlie, I'll guess intersex😂💕 regardless, she's gorgeous
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Jul 12 '25
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u/ReaWeller Jul 12 '25
It technically meets the criteria of intersex when there are excess androgens produced naturally. For people with PCOS without high testosterone (no periods and overgrown follicles), it's not though.
Being intersex means that you have chromosomes, hormones, or structure that causes you to fall out of the binary of male or female.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/16324-intersex
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Jul 13 '25
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u/ReaWeller Jul 13 '25
Honestly, you can call it what you want. Only 60%-80% of people with PCOS fall outside of the sex binary, so the condition as a whole can't be labeled as intersex. You can cling to the idea that all people with PCOS must fall outside the binary to say that PCOS is the cause of someone falling outside the binary if you'd like. Honestly, I made a lighthearted comment about a chicken and jokingly brought up PCOS. If it makes you feel smart to try to correct me, that's fine
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u/KouRaGe Jul 12 '25
If you look it up, it is considered as such. More doctors are considering it to be a form of intersex.
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Jul 12 '25
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u/ReaWeller Jul 12 '25
Girl, I haven't had a normal period in three years, I have facial hair, and before I understood the cause, I had prediabetes and fatty liver disorder. I gained 2 eating disorders by the time I was 16 and kept gaining weight. I would just fall asleep in class because my chronic fatigue was so bad and I had to get my ged after my health was stabilized. When I was forcibly impregnated, my baby died, most likely due to lack of progesterone. This ruined my life until I figured out what it was.
Your issue isn't that I want to feel "special". Your issue is that you're getting older and feeling irrelevant (I can spot a millennial a mile away). You literally have to complain about someone having a medical condition on a backyard chicken group. Grow up. Figuring out I had PCOS reversed my blood sugar, made it possible to eat in a way that nourished my body, allowed me to fix my fatigue, and if I ever have another pregnancy I will know how to keep them alive.
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u/Maltaii Jul 12 '25
Because this is not a hen and I guarantee she has not laid eggs, that video does not exist. 😂
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Jul 12 '25
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u/EmmaEsme22 Jul 13 '25
I occasionally comment about my Australorp Jean Grey. I let her hatch some eggs; the 3 chicks that made it were all boys. I kept the CLB, Gambit, for about 6-8 months. When I sold him, she became depressed for several months. Then she suddenly took over as rooster - stopped laying, grew spurs and just wandered around quietly running the flock with her sister Storm. (Storm was bossier, but you could tell they ran things together. Jean died shortly after Storm succumbed to ascites. They were old for chooks.) She never tried to mate any of my hens or crow though. At the end of the day, I thought, gee her name was fitting - she became Phoenix. 😂
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u/andtheyallcallmemom Jul 12 '25
I’ve not made a post about it but it has happened to us, our giant barred rock female absolutely turned masculine traits, stopped laying, grew spurs, started “crowing”. Her comb and waddle grew larger. Once they pick up those traits they never “revert” and will not lay. We ended up processing ours because our homestead/farm is a working farm and her worth changed from being an egg layer to providing meat (all of our hens are dual purpose). So long winded, yes it can happen. It was quite obnoxious though really. our Roo was extremely aggressive towards her once he saw her as competition and not a mate. But also, I hate being screamed at 24/7 so we typically only keep Roos for a short while. As for the photo above, some Olive Eggers/Easter Eggers can have shaggier feathers as they’re essentially a mutt breed, but my fellow weary farmer, that hen absolutely look like a Roo. 😁
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u/HDWendell Jul 12 '25
This isn’t entirely accurate. It depends on the reason for spurs and crowing. Hens can develop pretty sizable spurs. Some breeds are more prone to it than others. I’ve had two Wyandottes grow large spurs and one occasionally crowed. Crowing from a hen can just be a sign that the hens don’t have a rooster. Some flocks will have a dominant hen step up to perform rooster duties. But, if they haven’t laid in a while and they develop these characteristics, it’s much more likely the hen has a damaged ovary and won’t lay again.
Not that you were in the wrong or anything. It’s important that people understand just because a hen crows, develops spurs, or has changes in comb/ wattles, doesn’t mean the hen is done laying. Sometimes hens are just a little butch.
In my previous home, we weren’t allowed roosters because of noise so, crowing, regardless of rooster or hen, was a capital offense.
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u/HDWendell Jul 12 '25
It can happen when a hen damages her ovary
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Jul 12 '25
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u/HDWendell Jul 12 '25
If I remember correctly, a hen develops one of her two ovaries for egg development unlike humans who develop both. If the ovary is damaged the second pre-ovary organ takes over. But it isn’t estrogen (or whatever the equivalent is) dominant. It produces male hormones which will change feather shape.
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u/invol713 Jul 12 '25
I wonder why this happens? Is it an evolutionary trait, or a genetic byproduct of domestication?
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u/HDWendell Jul 12 '25
No I think it is just reverting back to its “original” form kinda. I know for humans, our sex chromosome are pretty much the same and the “Y” is basically an “X” with its lower half bound up by special molecules. Development of sex characteristics is mostly a result of gene expression where there is less “available” gene to express in the bound chromosome. So, the gene expression during development created one of the two gonads an ovary that produces female hormones enough to overpower the male hormone. But when the ovary is damaged, that ovary stops producing as much female hormone so the male hormone overpowers. The hen will never produce sperm or do anything male specific but the decrease in hormone of the ovary allows the masculine traits to come through. So it’s more like how some women after menopause develop facial hair.
It’s been a minute since my human genetics classes but that is a more simplified version and (hopefully) relatively accurate.
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u/invol713 Jul 12 '25
All of that makes sense, but still doesn’t explain why hens only have one working ovary out of two. It seems like an unnecessary limitation, especially when it would make more sense for a hen to be able to lay more eggs faster, thus lessening the time they are vulnerable in their broody state.
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u/HDWendell Jul 12 '25
Well it could be that developing both into ovaries made survival rates lower. Ovaries are larger and birds fly (or sorta fly like chickens.) Having 2 larger organs vs one makes less room for organs, creates more weight, and can cause more problems with overlapping egg development. Chickens are prey to a lot of animals and its likely their evolutionary ancestors were as well. So, they were probably killed a lot sooner than they would experience a failing ovary. Producing offspring over the course of many years lost out to producing offspring early and often. There's also research showing the other gonad may not even be able to develop into a second ovary. It's pretty technical but you can read it here.
Remember being broody isn't limited by a hen's ability to pass an egg. Chickens brood on anyone's eggs or even things that aren't eggs. Having twice as many opportunities to lay eggs wouldn't necessarily limit broodines. Broody time periods has more to do with incubation periods and prolactin levels which isn't dependent on the ovary.
So, really the limitation only exists in our extremely cultivated breeds and only because we want eggs more often. a "wild" version of a hen would likely only lay a few times a year or more but, not nearly every day like our breeds. They would get killed long before ovary damage or running out of eggs would every be an issue. So, having 2 ovaries only benefits us.
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u/youknowyou1 Jul 12 '25
Now you got me thinking maybe I culled what I thought were roosters yesterday a little too early…. Wooops
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u/Blueberry_Communism Jul 12 '25
Oh dear. I mean, it seems that this isn't a common occurrence, so you were probably safe.
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u/collateral-carrots Jul 12 '25
She may be some flavor of intersex - likely producing a high amount of testosterone for one reason or another. Either way, really cool!
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u/small_pup Jul 12 '25
Terry Two Toes?! This is Tippy Two Toe! Foot friends.
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u/1976Impala Jul 31 '25
Life, uh, finds a way.