What's the youngest age of your cockerel mating?

beautifulpirate said:

We have an 11 week old Welsummer who seems to be ahead of the curve on everything. He has been crowing since 5 weeks old. A few days ago, I saw him "attack" one of our hens. Coincidentally it's the hen he seems to favor/hang out with the most. I thought it was really strange. I can't say exactly what happened but she started squawking and running after he grabbed at her neck. Then today, while watching chicken TV I noticed some strange calls from him that I hadn't noticed before. He was pacing and following the same hen and then suddenly it was a race! She was running from him like crazy, making all kinds of noises, hopping over things and such. He kept grabbing at the back of her neck with his beak and trying to leap up onto her back. After looking at YouTube videos of young cocks trying to mate hens, I now suspect that is what he was trying to do.

Is this completely out of the realm of normality? I didn't think the cocks hormones were going to start going berserk until around 16 weeks....

I wasn't prepared for this so am going to be making chicken aprons/saddles tonight.

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oldhenlikesdogs said:

I wouldn't be making aprons, I would be making a separation pen for him to spend a few months in. He's too much too soon. I wouldn't leave him with the pullets. Put the pen where they can still see him and interact through the wire. Some mature faster especially on higher protein diets.

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CluckerCottage said:

I have a white leghorn cockerel named Rocky and he just turned 8 weeks old on Saturday.
He's trying to mate with my 8 week old pullets and he's crowing. It's a funny crow but a crow nonetheless.
My little girls are having none of it and they go back into their coop when he becomes particularly annoying.
 My mature hens are in their own coop/run and that's a good thing at this point because if he started messing with them, my sassier girls might hurt him.

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