In past posts, here and here, I wrote about how our gray Easter Egger, Zelda had turned into a rooster over the winter. Something had happened to her and she threw off enough testosterone to show male characteristics. Guesses for this change ran from a tumor on her reproductive organs, to hen-o-pause, to an illness, no one really knew what was going on.
She changed color, her neck feathers grew long and spiked and she developed a rooster’s tail.
I had heard of this happening (rarely but there were stories) and so I figured that Zelda was just being Zelda – so she’s transgender, it’s a little weird, but that’s okay, all are welcome in our flock.
With the recent falcon attack, I went out to the coop to take a full inventory of our chickens.
“I can’t find Zelda,” I told Marc fearing the worst. The Falcon must have gotten her. I mean it stood to reason, she was the alpha of the flock and if anyone would stand up to a predator, it would have been Zelda.
As Zelda is one of our family favorites, I broke the news to each of the kids one-by-one. When I told Addy, she replied with “No, she’s there, but she’s all white now.”
Some of my kids have speech impediments and so I had to clarify, “She’s all right?” I said a little confused. If she was all right, then where was she?
“No Mom, she’s all white. She’s turned white.”
I went out with her to the coop and she pointed out Zelda to me. Sure enough, Zelda has turned back into a hen. Gone are her neck feathers and her tail plumage.
In fact gone is pretty much everything that we had ever used to identify her except for her eyes, her comb, and that metal band around her leg (she’s the only one in our flock with a metal band – her previous owners had placed it on her before we purchased her.)
Honestly, if this were any other person I would question this story. A hen turns into a rooster which turns into a hen – and all three times, she completely changes coloring, um yeah, right. But I assure you, this is the same bird, and I’m just as surprised as you are.
It appears we have a chameleon chicken in our midst.
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
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