From Georgina to George – chicken changes sex
A chicken called Georgina has undergone a sex change and turned into a cockerel, now renamed George, reports UK’s Mail Online.
It is reported that the bird that used to lay eggs every morning has gradually transformed into a male over the past 2 years, and now boasts a bright-red male ‘cockscomb’ on top of its head.
According to George’s owner Jane Howorth, who runs the Battery Hen Welfare Trust in Chumleigh, Devon, and who has cared for over 10,000 former battery hens, the bird was always a “big girl”, but her suspicions became aroused when she noticed her hen developed hairy legs. “He doesn’t lay eggs anymore and crows every morning – it’s quite a turnaround,” she says.
George is apparently an ‘intersex’ hen, but experts say the odds of him making the full transformation are 10,000 to one. Apparently the change happens when an ovary is damaged, causing testosterone levels to soar and turn the ovary into a testicle.
