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Transgendered chicken baffles animal experts

by for PinkNews.co.uk
19 April 2006, 12:00am

A chicken has caused immense clucking amongst animal experts, and this time there isn’t even a little squawk of bird flu.

Freaky the hen has undergone a natural sex change, after growing red flaps and a thick tail of feathers, to become a cockerel.

She had been laying eggs for her owner for eight months until waking up one day with a totally different personality.

The bird now crows at sunrise, attacks other males, and tries to mate with female counterparts.

Jo Richards, who owns the animal said: “I’ve kept chickens for 10 years but I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

Animal experts say a chicken sex change is a one in 10,000 rarity, which happens when a damaged ovary causes a rise in testosterone levels, turning it into a testicle.

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