[bumpkins]

Help!  One of my 2 year old Welsummer hens has grown spurs.  She has lately become very bossy and noisy and is doing very 'cockerel like' activities with some of the other hens!  She's really not very nice to know at the moment.  We have an otherwise very happy flock of 20.  I was wondering if separating her to try and take her down a peg or two might help.  In the meantime, what can I do about the spurs - if anything?  thanks.

[ramon]

Hens sometimes develop spurs, doesn't affect their egg laying. Wouldn't worry about the spurs.

[Steph Hen]

Agree with bumpkins. I have a leghorn hen who in the absence of a male takes over male duties, kinda crows and mounts the hens! Although she only has bumps for Spurs, so not quite the same. My hen lays really well, and when there's a boy out there goes back to being a hen.

Is your welsommer laying or is she just being the boss?
If anything, maybe get a cock in for a spell? Not something too young and inexperienced, or too big and heavy - a welsommer cock might be the thing for making her feel more feminine 

[bumpkins]

No Steph Hen, she's not laying - but then some of the other older ones aren't yet anyway.  She is being pretty horrible to the others- even grabbing their heads with her beak as she mounts them!  She's been really 'feminine' in the past and even hatched her own babies.  She was a brilliant mother too!  I have another Welsummer so I think that I will separate the two sisters for a while - even if it is just to give the others a break.  As you say, it may be time to get a smallish cockerel in.  Thanks 

[darkbrowneggs]

Hens only have one ovary, and if they suffer from certain diseases and the ovary is damaged they will then display male tendencies and features, such as pointed feathers, enlarged wattles and mounting behaviour, and they will never lay again


On the other hand some dominant hens will mount others when there is no dominant male present, but will continue to lay. 

[goosepimple]

Hmmm, I have heard it said from a few different sources that a hen can turn cockerel - it only happens to one in a thousand hens or something like that - google it there must be something.

[darkbrowneggs]

http://sydney.edu.au/vetscience/apss/documents/1997/APSS1997-thorne-pp1-7.pdf

(b) Sex Reversal

Another unusual feature of avian sex determination is that it appears to be partially labile and reversible.  Spontaneous sex reversal occurs, usually in the adult female, but very rarely in the adult male (Hutt 1949; Van Krey 1990). Female sex reversal arises following the atrophy of the left ovary due to disease, or after ovariectomy.  In the absence of ovarian estrogen secretion medullary tissue in the rudimentary right gonad is induced to differentiate into a testis-like gonad, secreting androgens that masculinize the female bird. 

But I found that my Cream Legbars (good layers) often had spurs and sometimes the older hens grew quite long spurs.  But were always excellent layers and displayed no other male characteristics. 

[James1]

I've had gamefowl hens develop Spurs and they still seamed to lay and go broody just the same! I've also heard of some old strains of black leghorns that were spurred.