A chicken called Honor stunned its owner when it turned from a hen into a cockerel.
The unusual 'before' and 'after' photos show how the Black Rock chicken has swapped genders over the past 12 months.
Owner Gill Whiteley originally thought the crowing she heard was from a nearby farm as she only kept hens.But when the neighbours insisted there was a cockerel crowing in her orchard, where she keeps the chickens, she decided to check.
The 53-year-old teacher Gill who lives in the village of Treales, near Preston said: 'I had just bought some new hens and originally thought the poultry breeder had accidentally sold me a cockerel.
'I take photos of all my chickens and get to know all their character traits and couldn't see that any of the new batch were cockerels.
'Eventually, I found that it was a Black Rock chicken called Honor I had bought the year before who was crowing. A poultry website explained that this sort of sex change in chickens was a one-in-10,000 rarity. It happens when a damaged ovary causes the hen's testosterone levels to soar and therefore the bird's appearance and behaviour change from female to male.
The unusual 'before' and 'after' photos show how the Black Rock chicken has swapped genders over the past 12 months.
Owner Gill Whiteley originally thought the crowing she heard was from a nearby farm as she only kept hens.But when the neighbours insisted there was a cockerel crowing in her orchard, where she keeps the chickens, she decided to check.
The 53-year-old teacher Gill who lives in the village of Treales, near Preston said: 'I had just bought some new hens and originally thought the poultry breeder had accidentally sold me a cockerel.
'I take photos of all my chickens and get to know all their character traits and couldn't see that any of the new batch were cockerels.
'Eventually, I found that it was a Black Rock chicken called Honor I had bought the year before who was crowing. A poultry website explained that this sort of sex change in chickens was a one-in-10,000 rarity. It happens when a damaged ovary causes the hen's testosterone levels to soar and therefore the bird's appearance and behaviour change from female to male.
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