Unclear Gender/Sex? Is My Chicken an Hermaphrodite? The Story of the Gynandromorph Chicken

She looked like a pullet... up until she didn't look like a pullet. But now she doesn't quite look like a rooster, either. What is going on?? At first this chicken's gender was very unclear!

Scientists believe that Gynandromorphism in chickens happens when two sperm fertilize the same egg. It is somewhat rare, happening in 1 of every 10,000 chickens. If you meet enough chicken people, sooner or later you will hear tales of a chicken of questionable sex. And as it so happens, you are currently reading a story on a blog of someone who has a Chicken Of Questionable Sex... so we'll just call this chicken "Coques" for now.


Meet Coques:

Showing his/her girly side. No - I mean really. This just may be the female side of the bird!

As of the writing of this article, Coques is about 23 weeks old. As you can see, s/he has no noticeable saddle feathers. If you look closely, you can see that the tail feathers on this side are rounded, set at an angle and quite pulletish. But look at the tips of the tail feathers you can just make out on the other side... they are sickle feathers!

Can you see the difference?

I knew there was something different about this bird from early in his/her chickhood, but at that time I just thought him/her to be a special needs chick, and that perhaps it had experienced incubation issues and lack of proper nutrition with it's original owner (who fed it low-protein layer feed for it's first couple months of life).

One of the first things I noticed was that s/he was lopsided. Yes - the tail goes to one side, as does the neck, and it runs in the goofiest, klutziest manner I've ever seen.

 Yes - the tail always leans to the left... probably because of the different kinds of feathers coming in on each side.

 Here is where you can actually see a color difference between the two halves of this bird. This difference would be much more pronounced in unmottled breeds where the roosters have different color plumage than hens. Is that cool or what?

I likely would have given this bird away to a pet home had it not been for his/her endearing personality. S/he is by far the friendliest chicken I have ever had.

Yes - this is the chicken that dutifully oversaw my recovery from wrist surgery, and that runs up and right into my hands the moment I step foot outside. No - I never gave him/her treats to teach this behavior... s/he just loves to be cuddled.

Now just for comparison purposes, I'm going to share photos of Coques' full sister (same mother and father). We'll just call this bird "Grace."

 Grace

 Grace (left) and umm... Disgrace... (right)

 Grace - being graceful.

Coques - being "squawkward."

I don't know how Coques will change as s/he gets older. It will be interesting to watch his/her development to say the least. I also don't know how this condition might suppress hormones. While Coques does have sickle feathers coming in on his/her male side, there is little development of either saddle feathers or hackle feathers (at this time). S/he does have a few shiny mahogany feathers here and there (a male trait) but they are few and far between.

  For comparison: Mace is Coques' half-brother (same father), and just 10 weeks older. You can see how noticeable the saddle and hackle feathers are on this roo.

 Coques hatched without a toenail on the female side foot. I don't know if this has anything at all to do with the gynandromorphism or if it was an incubation issue.

There are two forms of gynandromorphism - bilateral gynandromorphism and mosaic gynandromorphism. In bilateral gynandromorphism the body is divided neatly in half - one full half of the body will express features from one gender while the other half of the body expresses features of the other gender. 

Mosaic gynandromorphism expresses more like a patchwork quilt with different areas expressing gender-specific features over the whole body.

(I don't know for sure if Coques is a bilateral or mosaic gynandromorph - perhaps time will tell.)

Both kinds of gynandromorphism happen while the developing embryo is at the very first stages of cell division. It only occurs  in birds, crustaceans and certain insects - mammalian hormones do not allow for the body to develop in a gynandromorphic  manner, but a similar condition called Chimerism does affect mammals in very rare cases.

 As for now, Coques is smaller than other chickens his/her age (even the Silkies). It is likely s/he may never lay an egg or crow, although it is possible s/he could do both. Needless to say, I will not be using him/her in my breeding program, but if s/he stays as friendly as s/he has been up until now, s/he will have a forever home with me!

For more on gynandromorphism (and to see some really striking photos) see:

• National Geographic Daily News: Half-Male, Half-Female Chicken Mystery Solved
• Gynandromorphism: Wikipedia
• Gynandromorph: The Wild Side
• Discover: Every cell in a chicken has its own male or female identity

*Chicken names have been changed to maintain privacy

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Blue Laced Red Wyandottes

By Karen -

I posted this previously on BYC, but feel it may need to be reviewed again...

I've seen so many questions about peoples' birds, pics, etc...

First, as far as color is concerned, blue laced red Wyandottes are just that...  they are blue (but can also be black or splash, since blue does not breed true), they are laced (a complete NARROW band of blue/black/splash around the center color), and they are RED.  In this case, red is not just your 'run of the mill' red like you'd see in a black breasted red whatever, but the deep dark mahogany red seen in the old heritage type Rhode Island Reds... 

This breed has no place for anything resembling gold, copper or fire-engine red. There is also no place for poor or incomplete lacing, and birds that have wide lacing will not breed true either. Over all, the blue is the easiest part to get right on this breed. It is also the most insignificant aspect of what makes a bird a BLRW.

And honestly, getting the color right is by far the easiest part of breeding GOOD blrw... it's the type that seems to be lacking 9 times out of 10, IMO...  Or just flat out ignored in some cases, I think.  But without type, all you have is a pretty chicken. NOT a Wyandotte.
So here's a brief refresher from past discussions regarding Wyandotte type...

One of the most commonly misunderstood (or even flat out ignored) is the proper profile a Wyandotte should have.

image is from the Wyandotte Breeders of America website

The following is from an old text regarding the Wyandotte standards...  useful for seeing right and wrong as far as overall body shape (ie, type)

the genetics behind lacing (good and bad):

Pg is the pattern gene, Ml is the melanizing gene, Co is the Columbian gene. Each one is dominant over the wild type (shown with a +). If all 3 mutations are not homozygous (2 copies of the mutation present) then the appearance of the lacing is changed.

the black tip mentioned above - AKA spangling  - can be seen in the image below, including proper and improper feather markings in a laced bird.

I hope this helps clear up some of the 'mystery' behind a beautiful variety and breed.

Here are my two large fowl birds, the others were killed by predators recently. I'm hoping to start hatching again once the hen is done being broody. The last picture is my bantam BLRW rooster. I'm searching for a better hen to use with him, as she appears to be more of a partridge than laced.  None of these birds are perfect, but were the best I could find and afford when I started breeding this variety. I lost one unrelated hen (black laced bred by J. Foley) and a black laced red pullet that was maturing very nicely from this breeding pen.

blue laced rooster (LF)

 splash laced hen (LF)

blue laced bantam rooster





Blue Genes? Chicken Genetics Made (almost) Simple

By: Karen - KI4GOT   (Visit Karen’s Farm Here)

 

Chicken genetics seem to be an endless source of confusion for so many people. I've taken a number of genetics courses in college, and at first they even confused me, but I also didn't know much about what the various mutations looked like in comparison to a number of different breeds. When I first started keeping chickens again, I had no idea where to start in determining what mutations were involved in some of the varieties I had.

Since then, I've done more research into specific colorations found in certain breeds, such as Bantam Cochins and Dorkings, and have gained a greater understanding of what goes into each variety. It also doesn't help that the same color in one breed may be called something else entirely in another. For example, comparing Brahma's to Cochins, a Light Brahma is also known as Columbian in the Cochins, while a Dark Brahma is known as Silver Penciled in the Cochins. Silver Grey dorkings are known as Silver Duckwing in many varieties, Red Dorkings are also called Black Breasted Red (aka BBR), or Red Duckwing in other breeds.

Before I start, let me mention that I tend to refer to mutations as having 1 or 2 copies of the gene, while the description below mentions each gene having 2 alleles. This is just 2 ways of saying the same thing. Here's a brief review of what DNA is.

Quote from http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics:

Living things are made of millions of tiny self-contained components called cells. Inside of each cell are long and complex molecules called DNA. DNA stores information that tells the cells how to create that living thing. Parts of this information that tell how to make one small part or characteristic of the living thing – red hair, or blue eyes, or a tendency to be tall – are known as genes.

Every cell in the same living thing has the same DNA, but only some of it is used in each cell. For instance, some genes that tell how to make parts of the liver are switched off in the brain. What genes are used can also change over time. For instance, a lot of genes are used by a child early in pregnancy that are not used later.

A living thing has two copies of each gene, one from its mother, and one from its father. There can be multiple types of each gene, which give different instructions: one version might cause a person to have blue eyes, another might cause them to have brown. These different versions are known as alleles of the gene.

Since a living thing has two copies of each gene, it can have two different alleles of it at the same time. Often, one allele will be dominant, meaning that the living thing looks and acts as if it had only that one allele. The unexpressed allele is called recessive. In other cases, you end up with something in between the two possibilities. In that case, the two alleles are called co-dominant or incompletely dominant.

There are two types of mutations. Autosomal and Sex-linked. All the mutations known in chickens are autosomal, with the exception, for all mammals and birds, of one pair of sex-determining genes. In people, men are shown as X/Y, while women are X/X. In poultry, the hen is designated as X/- while the rooster would be X/X. Each parent donates 1 allele from each gene in the DNA strand. Only the X chromosome carries genetic information, the /Y or /- sex determining chromosome does not carry any other information.

There are so many mutations and so many breeds, it can be overwhelming to say the least. It also doesn't help that a number of mutations react differently when combined with others. What I'd like to do here is to explain the basic functions of some types of mutations...

**NOTE: When you see a mutation abbreviation with + next to it, that refers to the normal or wild type gene that is not affected by any mutation. Essentially, a Black Breasted Red is unaffected by any mutations at all. It is the coloration found in the original Jungle Fowl that chickens descended from. Mutations shown capitalized are considered dominant, while lower case letters are recessive. Sometimes there are multiple mutations found on the same gene, and even though several might be recessive, there is a dominance of one over another.

Recessive mutations always require 2 copies of the gene (aka matching alleles) to be visible, while dominant mutations only require 1 copy to be present for the mutation to be apparent. There are also dominant mutations that are known as 'incompletely dominant', where only 1 copy of the gene gives you one visual type while 2 copies gives you another.

The mutations known to chickens typically do one of three things. They affect pattern, red pigmentation (known as pheomelanin) and black pigmentation (known as eumelanin). The pattern genes can be some of the most confusing, so I will leave that for last. Some mutations affect roosters and hens differently.

Kippenjungle's Chicken Calculator is a handy tool for anyone wanting to learn how genes interact with each other. All pictures (other than photos) below are from there and show only the single gene effect on an otherwise wild type bird. Another note - although the images are basically the same for some mutations, there are slight differences when shown on a live bird. These images are just to give you the basic idea of what it does.

 

For the most part, pheomelanin and eumelanin are affected in one of 2 ways. They are either enhanced (made darker) or restricted (made lighter).

These mutations are:

· Mahogany (Mh) - dominant, enhances red but limits some black.

       

· Dilute (Di) - dominant, dilutes red and gold pigments.

· Champagne Blond (Cb) - dominant, dilutes gold pigments.

· Inhibitor of Gold (ig) - recessive, changes gold pigments to yellow (lemon).

· Silver (S) - sex-linked incompletely dominant, turns red to white in roosters and turns brown to grey and lightens the salmon breast (when present) in hens.

· Dark Brown (Db) - refers to color of chick down. Columbian-like restrictor of black. Less effective on hens. Reacts with other mutations to cause some patterns and acts under Birchen.

· Melanotic (Ml) - dominant, enhances black pigments. Also shifts black pigment helping form patterns in the presence of other genes.

· Charcoal (cha) - recessive black enhancer.

· Chocolate (choc) - sex-linked recessive, dilutes black pattern to chocolate color.

· Dominant White (I) - dilutes black patterns to white (sometimes leaky).

· Dun (I^d) - incomplete dominant. 1 copy dilutes black to brown, 2 copies dilute further to khaki.

· Smokey (i^s) - recessive blue. changes the effects of dominant white to a blue color. recessive to wild type i+

· Blue (Bl) - incompletely dominant, 1 copy dilutes black to blue/grey, 2 copies dilute further to splash.

· Recessive White (c) - no expression of any color, thus white feathers.

· Lavender (lav) - recessive, dilutes black to lavender, dilutes gold to isabell. The American Poultry Association (APA) refers to the lavender color as "Self Blue".

Pattern genes are complex and often confusing. They may simply change the coloration of each feather, only certain areas of a bird or even areas only on a single sex. Quite often they also respond differently in the presence of other restricting or enhancing mutations listed above.

The e-locus mutations are sometimes the hardest to understand, since many affect each sex differently. They may also modify (or be modified by) other genes present.

· Wild Type (e+) - Males black breasted with red duckwing (wing triangle), hackle, saddle, shoulders. Females brown-gold with salmon breast, black stippling on back and black tail.

· Extended Black (E) - Dominant, turns the wing triangle black, changing it from a duckwing to a crow-wing. Males become a rusty black, hens less rusty black.

· Birchen (E^R) - Turns wing triangle black (crow-wing) but leaves hackle and saddles normally marked. Black breast can be laced. Somewhat flattens red tints.

· Wheaten (e^Wh) - Least permissive for black, most permissive for red. Males are wild type without hackle black, females wheaten colored without salmon breast and almost no stippling on back.

· Partridge (e^b) - Males are wildtype but somewhat heavier black striping in hackle. Hens are wildtype but without salmon breast. (Not to be confused with the color Partridge, in which hens are double laced)

The mutations affecting feather patterns are probably the easiest to understand (at least for me).

· Columbian (Co) - restricts black from the body of both males and females, also suppressing the salmon breast in hens. leaving the hackle pattern and black tails. Does not have any effect on E^R (birchen) birds.

· Pattern gene (Pg) - changes the black pigment in hens to concentric penciling, males remaining unchanged except in the presence of certain other genes.

· Barred (B) - sex-linked dominant. produces alternating bars of black and white pigment. Males with 2 copies of the gene will appear lighter and the barring finer and more distinct, where males with only 1 copy will resemble females with wider and less distinct barring (sometimes darker overall coloration).

· Mottled (mo) - recessive, giving white feather tips or less regular white patches.

When you start combining certain mutations you can get some drastic differences from what you might expect, and some different combinations produce nearly the same result.

· Co, Pg, Ml - single lacing

· Co, Ml - quail-type pattern, columbian with patterned back

· Pg, Ml - double laced

· Db, Pg, Ml - spangling

· Db, Pg - autosomal barring (quilt pattern)

· Co, Db, Pg, Ml - single lacing (sometimes half moon spangling) with patterned tail

· Co, Db, Ml - quail-type pattern, columbian with patterned back

· Db, Ml - quail-type pattern, columbian with patterned back

· Co, Pg - incomplete single lacing

I should also mention though, all of the talk of colors has NOTHING to do with breed requirements in regards to type or conformation. For more information on specific breed requirements I recommend purchasing the APA Standard of Perfection, available directly from the APA at http://www.amerpoultryassn.com/store.htm

Here are a few other examples of a few patterns and combinations, including some not mentioned above, that you might find when dealing with laced varieties.

Also included are a few pictures of REAL birds, to give an idea of some of the colors listed above...

   

Leigh's Blue and Splash Swedish Flower Hens. These birds have the blue gene (Bl/bl on the left, Bl/Bl on the right), in addition to mottling (Mo) and columbian (Co) that give the typical calico/mille fleur pattern.

   

My own blue laced red bantam Wyandotte rooster and a splash laced red Wyandotte (LF) pullet. The mutations involved in these birds involves the pattern gene (Pg), melanizing (Ml) and columbian (Co) which give the classic lacing, plus blue (Bl/bl for the roo & Bl/Bl for the hen) and Mahogany (Mh) to deepen the intensity of the red.

This next pair are both Red Dorkings, essentially the wild type of chickens, having no mutations at all.

     

The three birds in the foreground are silver grey Dorkings (two hens on the left, rooster on the right). The only mutation involved in these birds is silver (S). To the right (chopped off a bit) and also the picture below are two dilute red Dorkings. I'm not positive of the exact genome, but these two girls have dilute (Di) and the one below may possibly also have mahogany (Mh), which would explain the darker red head and breast than the one above.

Karen