[Shayanna]

I have a hen that is more like a bobble head than anything. Its like she is always trying to get a crick out. Is something wrong with her?


Also I picked up a bantam barred rock who was a solitary house chicken. They told me she quit laying early in life but was definitely a hen. The more I look at her, the more I see rooster qualities. Like a few green saddle feathers tucked in. And her comb and wattles are very masculine... I wonder if I have a hen turned roo. Any chance she'll turn back and start laying now that she is around real roosters?

 

[Jennifer L.]

I don't know about the hen with the neck. Sounds like she hurt it some how? Odd head movements can be Listeriosis, but if she's always been like that it's probably just the way she is.

As to hen to rooster, that's a sex hormone problem and happens when they've had a problem with their ovaries. They don't come back from that I know of. I've only seen it here once, though.

 

[jennigrey]

We had a hen with crop problems. She was always working her neck around, trying to get food into and through her crop. After a year or so of this, we finally had to euthanize her. When we did the post-mortem, there was a big knot of fibers in her crop. Might have been string/rope or just insoluble vegetation. In any event, she couldn't get it through her crop and it caught and held other food. We periodically had to fast her, to get her crop to shrink, otherwise, it would get so impacted that it restricted her breathing.

Something to keep in mind as you watch your chicken's behavior.

 

[secuono]

The house chicken, it should crow if it's a rooster, would be very obvious.
Lots of bantams have manly wattles and combs.

Worms or something stuck in the crop.

 

[KSALguy]

post a picture of the bird you think might be a sex change, there are a number of variables and possibilities, there are alot of hens that can display seemingly rooster qualities but are just normal hens, there are also hens that do develope hormonal issuse and change into a rooster to varying degrees on the outside, if you post a picture we would be better able to tell you what you have, there will still be signs even if she did shift to a roosters clothing so to speak

 

[Shayanna]

I will post one around midnight. She doesn't crow, no spurs, but is a bantam barred rock and has some of the green-black feathers near her tail that I associate with roosters. And our roosters avoid her. And the fact that she's only two and doesn't lay, at all, but used to. I think I am going to see what some18% protein will do for her, as she was previously on 14%.


On a side note, the "chicken necking" EE hen is acting normal. I just got her a week ago so I think maybe something happened on the way home?