12 wk old cockerel dirty dancing for the ladies?

[Maeschak]

I have a 12 week old cockerel starting to crow and trying to mate - trying to mate other 12 week old pullets as well as full grown hens. I was trying to wait until 14 weeks before butchering him for the grill, but if he is causing trouble already he might not make it that long!

Anyone else have cockerels sexually mature that early? He is a sex link hybrid I made using a production red and Delaware. I wanted some hybrid layers and some cockerels to eat but didn't realize it might be difficult to bring them to 14 weeks.

 

[Jetblack2004]

I had a batch of pure LSx cockerels that started crowing at 14 weeks and I was really suprised. They were just 3 1/2 months- I would have expected crowing at around 5-6 months of age.

The cockerels were also trying to mate with the pullets in the group. It really suprised me. I'm not sure why they matured so much quicker than all the other cockerels I've had. They weren't even particularly big either .

-Jet

 

[Maeschak]

Yeah, I'm used to my Delawares starting to crow around 15 weeks or so but they wait longer to start actually harassing the girls... They start chasing around 16 weeks and are full on raging hormonally by 17/18 weeks. This little guy takes the cake!