Transgender Issues

My daughter, Elizabeth, has 3 hens. Lately, 2 of them have developed gender identity issues to include crowing and fighting over the 3rd hen. Also, they have quit laying eggs. How should we handle this? Should we attempt some form of gender orientation or simply accept them as roosters trapped in a hen's body?

BTW, the 2 hens in question are an Americauna and an Easter Egger. As you can guess, we especially want their eggs.

A tough old bird may require a slow simmer to get it to be tender.

I recently learned that while hens usually live about 8-10 years, they only lay eggs for 2 years. Our local animal shelter apparently has a ton of chickens in it, because all these hipsters thought it would be a great idea to have fresh eggs, but weren't prepared to slaughter the chicken for meat after it stopped laying.

What I'm saying is, slaughter one chicken out in the yard, and I bet the other two will start laying again post haste.

consider how cute Hendas would be.....

Big Sarge;871797 wrote:

My daughter, Elizabeth, has 3 hens. Lately, 2 of them have developed gender identity issues to include crowing and fighting over the 3rd hen. Also, they have quit laying eggs. How should we handle this? Should we attempt some form of gender orientation or simply accept them as roosters trapped in a hen's body?

BTW, the 2 hens in question are an Americauna and an Easter Egger. As you can guess, we especially want their eggs.

We had an mixed Araucana rooster we thought was a hen because he never developed his tail feathers until we got rid of the dominant rooster. They can be tricky to sex. Could the one hen have been doing all the laying? Eat one of the bastards and see what happens.

Glatt - I agree totally. Unfortunately, Elizabeth is too tender hearted.

Griff - You might have hit the nail on the head

Use Cornell BBQ Sauce and she will forgive you. Grill over charcoal and baste thoroughly.

Yield: Enough for 5 pounds of chicken.

1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons coarse salt*
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground pepper
Poultry pieces (half chicken, whole chicken, whole chicken legs,
chicken thighs, and/or chicken breasts)

Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Yeah, if they're not laying, it's time to turn them into soup. ;)

Maybe you need to stop oppressing them.

If these were purely productive animals, soup would make sense. But they're not, they're also pets, and I think that keeping them as pets and letting them be themselves, whatever they want to be (cliche-ed though it is) and still loving them as pets, is an important example to set.

Pets schmets. What are they then? Guard chooks? lol. Even our pets have jobs.

Time for a bog ole batch of chicken and dumplings !!!

Elizabeth has emotional attachments to these creatures. That's what they're "for".

Or, plan B .... get (or borrow) a rooster. Let him strut around acting all, well, cocky, for a week or two, see if that doesn't show those chicks what's what.
[COLOR="LemonChiffon"]
'cause we all know that all lesbians just really need a good deep-dicking to set them straight[/COLOR].

Clodfobble;871801 wrote:

I recently learned that while hens usually live about 8-10 years, they only lay eggs for 2 years.

Big Sarge;871797 wrote:

Lately, 2 of them have developed gender identity issues to include crowing and fighting over the 3rd hen.

So what y'all are saying is that when birds get past breeding age they get all butch, cut their hair short and start trying to hump younger chicks?

[COLOR="LemonChiffon"]Sorry, was I supposed to put that in invisible font?[/COLOR]

[COLOR="LemonChiffon"]Yeah I think so[/COLOR].


Now there's going to be an ovary action.

Clodfobble;871801 wrote:

I recently learned that while hens usually live about 8-10 years, they only lay eggs for 2 years. Our local animal shelter apparently has a ton of chickens in it, because all these hipsters thought it would be a great idea to have fresh eggs, but weren't prepared to slaughter the chicken for meat after it stopped laying.

What I'm saying is, slaughter one chicken out in the yard, and I bet the other two will start laying again post haste.

Yes, make an example.
Tell them to bring their production levels up to expectations, or repercussions will follow.
Public executions of undesirables may jump-start the machinery.
Inform them that the same fate awaits them if they are not careful.

ZenGum;871913 wrote:

Get (or borrow) a rooster. Let him strut around acting all, well, cocky, for a week or two.

Although Zen couched the post in a comedy stylee (c'mon Zen, really?) this is a good solution. You'll need to find a local chicken group/ forum/ website, but there is always a surfeit of roosters. And they FIGHT. There's a good chance that someone will lend you a rooster once they have ascertained that Elizabeth is a responsible owner.

My chicken-keeping ex-colleague did the same when one of her hens started displaying rooster tendencies. She could not keep a rooster because of the proximity of neighbours, and because she prized eggs more than chicks, but a short stint was all that was needed.

Nature abhors a vacuum.

Sorry puppy is sorry:

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I have poor impulse control. :D

I am immune to the puppy eyes.
Kitten eyes is better. Just not via Airmail.