Roosters mating non-laying hens?

[Firewithin]

So, I actually have three different groups of chickens penned together. They are as followed:

Early April Hatch - Silkie cross - 3 rooster and 3 hens
June 19th Hatch - EE's - 3 possible hens and two unsexed
July 1st Hatch - Silkie cross (unrelated from the April clutch) - 11 unsexed birds

Now, my three April silkie roos are pretty much adults. They crow and do their little mating dance and whatnot, but my hens still seems to be too young to start egg-laying. We've had no eggs thus far. However, that hasn't stopped any of my roosters from mating and the one I witnessed yesterday seemed to be successful; the hen didn't fight it and seemed receptive.

So, my question is if a rooster is mating a non-laying female, should I be expecting eggs soon? I wasn't expecting any for another few months because I've read that silkies lay around 9-10 months of age... Then again, these aren't purebred so maybe that doesn't apply to them?

 

[junebuggena]

If there are no mature hens for them to mate, they will try to mate with the immature pullets. Your oldest pullets are still at least a month away from laying.

 

[donrae]

My small sample of hatchery silkies started laying right around 6 months.

some roosters will mate immature pullets, some won't. If the birds are roughly the same size, as yours should be, it should be fine. Chicken mating does not involve penetration of the hen, so there's not chance of internal damage if she's immature. The biggest cause for concern would be if the pullets are much, much smaller than the rooster and he would injure her by his weight.

 

[Firewithin]

Alright. Thanks for the info guys

 

[aart]

This 'rooster' is actually a cockerel, they will try to mount anything they can, receptive or not.

Now if we were talking about a mature rooster(over a year old) then he wouldn't be hitting on those young girls unless they were close to laying.

 

[Firewithin]

Correction; we have eggs on the ground!