Hen turns to rooster

SALTFORD, England, April 19 (UPI) -- In a role reversal on the old saw about "henpecked" men, Britain's Freaky the Hen has turned to playing rooster, sporting a full comb and a wattle.

Freaky spent the first eight months of her life laying eggs and being courted by a rooster, reports the Daily Telegraph.

But since last September, the silver-laced Wyandotte has been crowing at sunrise, and even engages in mating -- although the machinery needed to produce offspring is absent.

Said Freaky's owner, Jo Richards of Saltford, near Bath: "One morning, out of the blue, she just started crowing."

A veterinarian says Freaky's sex change is indeed very rare.

"I have been keeping poultry for 35 years and seen it only twice," said Victoria Roberts, the Poultry Club of Great Britain's honorary vet.