WEBVTT - How Can a Hen Turn into a Rooster?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.080
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff.

0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:11.200
<v Speaker 1>Lauren bog obamb Here. Miss Lucille was a sweet pullet,

0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:13.440
<v Speaker 1>which is a term for a young hen who had

0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:15.800
<v Speaker 1>found a cozy home in a backyard chicken coop in

0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.800
<v Speaker 1>Powder Springs, Georgia. Initially, things appeared to be status quo

0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.400
<v Speaker 1>with the young exchequer leg horn cross. After observing her

0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.640
<v Speaker 1>for a time, however, her owner, who wished to remain anonymous,

0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:31.000
<v Speaker 1>noticed Miss Lucille was growing a comb. Although both sexes

0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:33.760
<v Speaker 1>of the breed can have them. Her owner's instincts told

0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.840
<v Speaker 1>her that perhaps something wasn't quite standard, so she sought

0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:40.360
<v Speaker 1>the help of a local farmer. The owner recalls the

0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.159
<v Speaker 1>farmer did all the checks to confirm Miss Lucille was

0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.479
<v Speaker 1>a miss. She had no saddle feathers, which are pointy

0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.120
<v Speaker 1>feathers at the base of the tail, no aggression, didn't

0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.920
<v Speaker 1>jump or react in the presence of other hens or roosters,

0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.000
<v Speaker 1>and when she was laid back in the farmer's hand,

0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.440
<v Speaker 1>she stuck her legs straight out and just laid there.

0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:00.600
<v Speaker 1>All our old timers tricks to identifying roosters, since there's

0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.000
<v Speaker 1>no definitive way to tell until they mount another chicken

0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:08.240
<v Speaker 1>or crow aside from lab testing, so Miss Lucille had

0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:12.199
<v Speaker 1>failed the rooster test. However, later on the owner arrived

0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:14.520
<v Speaker 1>home to a mess of feathers in the backyard, an

0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.960
<v Speaker 1>unusual event because hens don't usually molt until around eighteen

0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:22.000
<v Speaker 1>months of age. The owner said she began acting more temperamental,

0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.200
<v Speaker 1>but I attributed that to her molting, as it can

0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.200
<v Speaker 1>be quite uncomfortable for chickens. I was worried about her health.

0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.520
<v Speaker 1>Although strange things were certainly a foot in Miss Lucille's world,

0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.960
<v Speaker 1>none of them were health threatening. When her feathers grew back,

0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.119
<v Speaker 1>they were saddle feathers like those found on roosters. Her

0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.280
<v Speaker 1>hackles and tail feathers had also undergone some major changes.

0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.200
<v Speaker 1>Her owner said she went from being your typical hen

0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:49.080
<v Speaker 1>to a rooster with beautiful long tail feathers and pointy hackles.

0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.560
<v Speaker 1>Her gait changed, and she was definitely at the top

0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:56.040
<v Speaker 1>of the pecking order. Further consultation advised a weight and

0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.880
<v Speaker 1>see approach. One farmer told the owner just because she

0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.480
<v Speaker 1>now looked like a rooster didn't mean she was one.

0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.120
<v Speaker 1>I needed to wait until she crowed or mounted one

0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:09.320
<v Speaker 1>of the hens. Miss Lucille's comb continued growing, but she

0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.440
<v Speaker 1>also became more mellow and friendly. Her owner said for

0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.919
<v Speaker 1>every indicator that she might still be as she, there

0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:19.400
<v Speaker 1>was another for her being a he. Finally, irrefutable proof

0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.160
<v Speaker 1>came at around five months of age. The rooster literally crowed.

0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.440
<v Speaker 1>Her owner said. Every day the crow grew louder and stronger.

0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.760
<v Speaker 1>It was official that Miss Lucille was now Mr Lucille,

0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:33.760
<v Speaker 1>and to his credit, he assumed the role wonderfully. If

0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:35.600
<v Speaker 1>the girls were low on water, he'd crow, would let

0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:37.639
<v Speaker 1>me know to get it on. He'd lead the charge

0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:39.840
<v Speaker 1>up to roost at night. He'd wake us up with

0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:44.480
<v Speaker 1>his song early each morning. So how does a hen

0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:49.080
<v Speaker 1>become a rooster? Spontaneous sex reversal, such as in the

0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.800
<v Speaker 1>case of Mr Lucille, is extremely rare. A study out

0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.440
<v Speaker 1>of Bangladesh found that only twenty eight of three thousand

0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:59.000
<v Speaker 1>hens monitored underwent reversal. The jury is still out on

0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.960
<v Speaker 1>exactly why this phenomenon occurs, but there are some prevailing theories.

0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:06.520
<v Speaker 1>According to Drew Benson, Assistant professor of poultry science at

0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.960
<v Speaker 1>the University of Georgia. Benson said via email, current evidence

0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.680
<v Speaker 1>shows that sexual differentiation in birds is a mix of

0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:18.320
<v Speaker 1>direct genetic and hormonal mechanisms. The right ovary and overduct

0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:21.679
<v Speaker 1>regress during embryonic development, leaving the hand with only one

0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:25.200
<v Speaker 1>functional ovary, the left one. Should the left ovary be

0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.919
<v Speaker 1>removed or become dysfunctional due to disease, the regressed right

0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:33.960
<v Speaker 1>ovary may form an ovotestis, he explained, but let's break

0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.400
<v Speaker 1>that down a little. Most instances of spontaneous sex reversal

0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.320
<v Speaker 1>in birds, such as Mr. Lucile's, are believed to be

0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:45.440
<v Speaker 1>connected to alterations in sex steroid hormone action, such as estrogen.

0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.560
<v Speaker 1>The hypothesis is that estrogen activity suppresses development of the

0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.480
<v Speaker 1>right gonad, but when the ovary fails to secrete estrogen,

0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.640
<v Speaker 1>the tissue in the undeveloped right gonad is then changed

0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.760
<v Speaker 1>to an ovotestis, which is a testis like structure that

0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.800
<v Speaker 1>will again to secrete androgens and give the female bird

0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:07.760
<v Speaker 1>more physical characteristics usually seen in males. Benson noted that

0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:10.480
<v Speaker 1>the lack of estrogen will change the bird's plumage, and

0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.120
<v Speaker 1>the increased testosterone causes the crowing and growth of head

0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:18.440
<v Speaker 1>ornaments like the wattle and comb. Scientists aren't sure why

0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.840
<v Speaker 1>this happens. Benson said that it's pretty common for ovarian

0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.400
<v Speaker 1>disease to cause dysfunction of the ovaries, yet spontaneous sex

0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:29.520
<v Speaker 1>reversal is much less common. He said, you couldn't simply

0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.159
<v Speaker 1>remove an ovary from a hen and generate a spontaneous

0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:36.480
<v Speaker 1>sex reversal. The exact mechanism underlying Avian sex determination has

0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.839
<v Speaker 1>yet to be resolved. So what's a hen turned roosters

0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.400
<v Speaker 1>owner to do? Benson said, embrace the fact that you

0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:46.919
<v Speaker 1>have a rare chicken. The newly changed chicken is no

0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:48.880
<v Speaker 1>longer going to produce eggs, so you would need to

0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.000
<v Speaker 1>get a new hen if you wanted egg production. Our

0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.039
<v Speaker 1>anonymous owner wound up having to farm Mr Lucile out

0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.040
<v Speaker 1>to another rooster lover once the crowing got out of control.

0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.680
<v Speaker 1>She said, we have a subdivision behind our house, and

0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:03.640
<v Speaker 1>although we are fortunate enough to be able to have

0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.039
<v Speaker 1>roosters on our property, we didn't feel it was the

0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.400
<v Speaker 1>neighborly thing to do. While I miss him, I don't

0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.880
<v Speaker 1>miss the early morning wake up call, and I'm happy

0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:19.719
<v Speaker 1>he's where he can do his thing freely. Today's episode

0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.000
<v Speaker 1>was written by Alia Hoyt. And produced by Tyler Clang.

0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.760
<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works.

0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.080
<v Speaker 1>For more in this and lots of other Croworthy topics,

0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.640
<v Speaker 1>visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com. And

0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.560
<v Speaker 1>for more podcast my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.320
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.