Confused: Jeanette Howard with Gertie - or should that be Bertie?An egg-laying hen has stunned its owner by changing sex and turning into a crowing cockerel.
Jeanette Howard, 79, was amazed after one-year-old Gertie grew a distinctive comb and red flaps under its chin.
He - or she - has even started crowing at dawn, so Jeanette now plans to re-name him Bertie.
Characteristic: Gertie has grown a distinctive comb and red flaps under the chinShe said confused Gertie began to walk differently from her two other hens, Daisy and Gracie, a while ago.
But the pensioner was reassured by her vets that the hen was fine and there was nothing wrong.
Mrs Howard said: 'I bought three chickens a year ago and they were all laying eggs for me until the end of the year.
'They began to moult over the winter and I wasn't taking a lot of notice.
'Then one day I heard this crowing noise and I thought "Where's that coming from?"
'I looked into the garden at Gertie and I saw it was coming from her - or him.'
Jeanette, of Needingworth, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, said Gertie had suddenly developed a scarlet comb, chin wattle and long tail feathers, all male characteristics.
'It had started cock-a-doodle-do-ing and had grown bits all over its face.
'He had really grown and was strutting around with his head up in the air, so proud of himself,' she said.
'I shall have to stop calling her Gertie now and start calling him Bertie.'
Jeanette said her three hens had laid eggs every day before the winter but their laying has become more irregular.
source: dailymail
Posts
