Loretta Had a Sex Change

Loretta has had quite a colorful life in her seven months as a bird. As you remember, she started out as the one “rare breed” sent to us in the little box with all the other Rhode Island Reds that arrived at the post office. She was called a “Buff Laced Polish Chicken” and she was pretty and yellow while the others were all orange. She was always a little different… more passive and sweet. If the aggressive Reds pecked at her, she just stood there and took it.

She had a bit of a pompadour, looked naturally done up, which is how she got her name — Loretta, after Loretta Young.

She managed to get very dirty and needed frequent baths, which made her very drowsy.

Over time, the pompadour got bigger. She couldn’t see well it came so far over her eyes. We had to trim it sometimes.

And then one day she had an unfortunate run-in with a mentally ill rooster and was badly injured. So she had to live inside for a while. She never recovered the site in her left eye, and so we kept trimming her head feathers so she could see out of the right side.

She seemed to compensate well. She participated in various photo shoots…

How many of the Rhode Island Reds could say they’d had their photo taken on a toilet?

And she meandered outside when it was nice out.

But then we started to wonder…

Why wasn’t she laying any eggs? Was she that badly injured by Buster?

And then it started. She began waking everyone up at 5am every morning. With her crowing.

And look…

Does something seem a bit off to you about her appearance?

I can’t say why exactly it took us 7 months to notice…

Perhaps we were too busy nursing her to health, perhaps she was slow to develop… but when the 5am wake-up calls began, it was time for her to go out to the chicken coop and live with the rest of the roost.

Yes my friends, Loretta is now a rooster, and shall from here on out be called LORENZO.

Congratulations Lorenzo, you’re a man now.