are my silkies gay?

[honeysolo]

I bought 2 Silkie black roosters. They had lived together in a cage and partly a back yard in a House, Raised from chicks. They are now about 8 months old one of them always mounts the other and the other let's him. Even offering his behind and plumping his back. Then after they finish they fight. I have about 8 female silkies and 1 dominating white Silkie named Zeus and a less dominating white Showgirl. The 2 black silkies are brothers and they are always together. They don't even attempt to interact with the hens. We recently hatched eggs, Zeus is the father of 12 out of 13 chicks (one is a showgirl). I bought them to mate with my chickens for Silkie babies and they are the only 2 black rosters I have. Are they just more into each other? Help?

 

[chooks4life]

Are you absolutely sure it's a rooster? Sorry, had to ask. Sometimes hormonally imbalanced hens develop as males, and the only way you'd know is a genetic test; otherwise they pass as normal males albeit sterile.

Males raised with other males not uncommonly exhibit bisexuality, some being exclusive homosexuals; this is common enough in many species we've domesticated which we normally keep segregated by gender for most of their lifespans.

He may well mate with females too, at least one of your Black boys should. But, it's also common for bisexual males to be more aggressive to females, and fight them, because they are often gender-confused or blind, if you know what I mean. So be aware these Blacks may be more aggressive to the hens if they're already in the habit of being aggressive to the animal they consider their mate.

The one who allows mounting may be more aggressive to females even if he won't mate because he may simply view them as being the same as himself, therefore he would be part of the female hierarchy whereas naturally males and females have separate hierarchies which do not compete with one another.

I'd guess the best thing to do may be to break up the couple and only allow them access to hens, and probably your most submissive hens, due to the risk of aggression.

EDIT: even if these submissive hens are not the ones you want to breed with these new roosters, they are the best bet for getting them to settle in, initially, and recognize normal flock or family social structure. Observing your normal rooster/s will also help. Chickens can and do learn by watching. Even my dumbest birds learned quite a lot from watching, and it's been studied and proven scientifically. So if they can watch your normal acting male/s acting normal, they may well learn it.

If your hens are anything like mine, the best or alpha hens are rather opinionated and won't accept sub-par males, even if they're only lower grade because they're acting weird, so conflict is more likely if the sub-par male attempts to mate with a hen who is out of his league. I've noticed my lowest-grade hens don't generally make a fuss about what males they mate with though they'd prefer the best, but the alpha males tend not to want to mate with the sub-par females.

Best wishes.

 

[donrae]

If you want one of the black roosters to father chicks, pull out the sub black rooster and the other two. Leave the dominant black rooster as the only male with the hens. I'm betting he'll get the picture sooner rather than later. You can try the same thing with the sub black, or just re-home him as you probably don't need two black roosters, and they have issues with each other. I think separating them will be a good thing.

 

[honeysolo]

Thank you so much! I will do that tomorrow. Hopefully they get the picture...

 

[honeysolo]

Thank you for the valuable information! It was very informative! I will definitely do that. Thank you!