America, we can learn a lot from a transgender chicken

Weird tales from a South Carolina Lowcountry farm.

     Born and raised on a farm, I have encountered many oddities and natural wonders in my lifetime. I’ve seen the elders “talk the fire” out of a burned child, and even “curse off” a wart or two with secret Bible verses. I once witnessed a cornered, chicken-eating dog embrace Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Then, there was the pig that thought she was a dog. But in my 48 years of rural living, I’ve never seen or even heard of a transgender chicken—until now.

     It was my wife who first noticed this phenomenon. She rushed breathlessly into the house, almost in a tizzy, to inform me that one of her prized, full-blooded-with-papers Buff Orpington hens had completely stopped laying eggs, was growing a larger comb, waddle and spurs, developing more colorful, male-like plumage, and was now in the act of crowing like a rooster and making unwanted romantic advances to the other hens.

     Naturally, as a veteran husband, it is my first instinct and manly duty to discount, disbelieve, and disagree with most of what my wife says. It’s just a fun hobby that I’ve enjoyed in the years since we said, “I Do,” and she has a much similar hobby. But a quick roll call and visual inspection confirmed what the crazy lady was saying. Still thinking it impossible, I Googled “Can a hen turn into a rooster?”  Man, I really hate it when Google takes my wife’s side.

     Much to my amazement, a little online research confirmed that, in very rare incidents, a hen can indeed transform into a rooster. An article in www.livescience.com cites a year 2000 report published by the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences that states, “Sex reversals do, in fact, occur—although not very frequently…” However, they usually only go one way, from hen to rooster.

     “To date, however, spontaneous sex reversal from male to female has not been reported,” the article added, as if that would make the mysterious transformation less jaw-dropping.