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   Ziltoidia ♀️ (ziltoidia@spinster.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 02:49:30 JST Ziltoidia ♀️

   • PohlMe
   @PohlMe Unlike humans, hens can actually do that :D therefore there is always a need for a real rooster among hens, otherwise a hen will identify herself into roosterhood and stop laying eggs.
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     Ziltoidia ♀️ (ziltoidia@spinster.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 02:49:29 JST Ziltoidia ♀️

     in reply to

     • PohlMe
     • Mynona
     @Mynona @PohlMe https://www.backyardchickencoops.com.au/blogs/learning-centre/gender-bender-when-your-hen-thinks-shes-a-he and yet in this one the villager wisdom is confirmed!
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     F O T T F S O F A W Y G T F O S M...................... (xzy45@spinster.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 02:49:29 JST F O T T F S O F A W Y G T F O S M......................

     in reply to

     • PohlMe
     • Mynona
     @Ziltoidia @Mynona @PohlMe I don't understand this thinking, as literally millions of 'roosterless' hens have been couped up in large egg laying housing, and regardless of existence of roosters lay eggs, never change into the opposite sex, and just lay unfertilised eggs. Certainly in the Western world this has been the case for far too long - battery hens, but hens prefer to have small spaces actually, as it turns out, and need tight coups to feel safe to lay in.
     
     Its only misogynistic, patriarchal roosters that claim hens need males around!
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     Flick ?? (flick@spinster.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 02:49:29 JST Flick ??

     in reply to

     • F O T T F S O F A W Y G T F O S M......................
     • PohlMe
     • Mynona

     @xzy45 @Ziltoidia @Mynona @PohlMe They don’t “choose” to do it. Hens only have one developed ovary, the other just sits there as a generic gonad. If the developed one is knocked out of action in some way, the other one develops. Usually, it turns into an ovary but occasionally it becomes a testis, which gives the hen male secondary sex characteristics. They aren’t fertile, even if they produce sperm, because they don’t have the right plumbing.

     You can also do cool stuff with incubation temperatures that mean you can hatch roosters that only produce female offspring.

     Seahorses are horses likes this.
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     Mynona (mynona@spinster.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 02:49:30 JST Mynona

     in reply to

     • PohlMe
     @Ziltoidia @PohlMe What really?
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     Ziltoidia ♀️ (ziltoidia@spinster.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 02:49:30 JST Ziltoidia ♀️

     in reply to

     • PohlMe
     • Mynona
     @Mynona @PohlMe This was common knowledge among village people. The term used for such hens is also a derogatory word for gay males :(
     
     But now that I've googled it, it looks like this common knowledge is not entirely correct. Hens do sometimes experience a sex reversal, but it's caused by a disease.
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     Ziltoidia ♀️ (ziltoidia@spinster.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 02:49:30 JST Ziltoidia ♀️

     in reply to

     • PohlMe
     • Mynona
     @Mynona @PohlMe Forgot link: https://poultry.extension.org/articles/poultry-anatomy/avian-reproductive-female/sex-reversal-in-chickens-kept-in-small-and-backyard-flocks/