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Unisex Peafowl

I acquired this bird as a 2 yr old in the fall of 1997 in Southern OK. along with a Spaulding and a few other birds. It struck me as a really beautiful bird with unusual markings for a female. As it matured it never laid and still has never laid any eggs and around 3 yrs it started to get some longer train feathers with the eyes. It has only molted the feathers once and that was at the time of an injury it had received in a fight with some other birds for dominance . I started calling it an IT but decided I really didn't know, so I refer to the bird as a Unisex as it doesn't lay like a hen nor look like a hen but acts like a hen. Still it has the plumage of an approximately 2 yr. old male, yet it does not molt in the fall as it should like a male. It never appears to attempt to mate nor have I seen a cock bird ever attempt to mate it. It is the dominate bird in the pen other that the cock bird that may be in for breeding of other females. I have had reports of other similarly owned birds and read of some. Most have made a change from one sex to the other due to physical changes caused by nature or environment , but I believe this one started out this way. And at 10 yrs. old the unisex is still a beautiful bird. George A Conner

************************************************************************************************************** Iona McCormik's Experience

I got the hen at about 6 months old. She came from Greenville, NC. A fellow had 2 hens and a cock in his chicken yard and sold 3 big chicks to a fellow I was dating. They were a Christmas gift. The birds were one of the nicest gifts I have ever gotten.

As a young hen she produced a bunch of eggs and chicks every year. Since at that early stage I only had 3 peas and both hens brought up chicks each year I know she was doing her job.

About 3 or 4 years ago I notice she had began to grow longer tail feathers than the other hens and they had green in them like a young male. Since I knew she was an old gal I just watched her do her thing. She was the boss hen and had not produced any eggs in several years probably because her ovaries were no longer functioning due to her advanced age. She was a post menopausal hen so to speak.

Last week she died at the age of 16-17