Can a rooster be too large to safely mate with a small hen?

[hysop]

@Mvan42 — Thank you for your comments and advice. Sometimes I just need to talk it out and come to a conclusion of what to do.

I will be separating the two young hens into their own coop and then go from there. Or maybe pen up the two bachelors. Either way, the two young hens need some relief from being overly mounted. The other young hen doesn’t show signs of injury, but I don’t doubt that will change now that her sister is isolated til she stops limping.

 

[Ridgerunner]

In practically any breed the rooster is bigger than the hen. Nature did some things to help protect the hen during the mating process. I'll copy something I wrote that describes the why as well as what of the idealized mating between adults.

The rooster dances for a specific hen. He lowers one wing and sort of circles her. This signals his intent.

The hen squats. This gets her body onto the ground so the rooster’s weight goes into the ground through her entire body and not just her legs. That way she can support a much heavier rooster without hurting her joints.

The rooster hops on and grabs the back of her head. The head grab helps him get in the right position to hit the target and helps him to keep his balance, but its major purpose is to tell the hen to raise her tail out of the way to expose the target. A mating will not be successful if she does not raise her tail and expose the target. The head grab is necessary.

The rooster touches vents and hops off. This may be over in the blink of an eye or it may take a few seconds. But when this is over the rooster’s part is done.

The hen then stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container inside the hen near where the egg starts its internal journey through her internal egg making factory.

Not all adult matings go this way and you are not dealing with adults. Also nature does not deal with absolutes. She may make things safer but that doesn't necessarily mean they are totally safe. Also breeds are manmade. A feral flock in nature would not have a huge difference in size, not like different manmade breeds can.

As others mentioned they have big differences in size yet do not have problems. But that doesn't mean nobody ever has problems, as you can see. The hen squatting to get the rooster's weight in the ground through her body instead of through her legs does help a lot, as long as she squats. The more difference in weight between the hen and rooster the higher the risk.

Another big part of this is technique. Mature hens generally know to squat. Mature roosters generally have learned a better technique and usually have the respect of the hen so the hen is more willing to cooperate. Again, that is not absolute. Not all mature hens cooperate with all mature rosters. Some mature roosters rely more on force than personality. But with most mature flocks there is little drama.

Not all immature pullets cooperate, especially with immature cockerels. Cockerels tend to rely more on brute strength than personality. They are generally bigger and stronger than the pullets and hens and let's face it, their personalities hopped up on those hormones are generally not that appealing to the pullets and hens.

The difference in size between my cockerels and pullets or hens and roosters are not as dramatic as yours. My pullets are not crippled. Some pullets may lose a few feathers, especially around the back of the neck or on the back, but I've never had one ripped like you describe. I think the difference in size and maturity levels have a lot to do with what you are seeing. If you keep them separated as you plan they may be OK together once they all mature. Maybe, but I can't give you any guarantees with that. At some point you may be forced to decide between your little girls or big boys. I try to decide for the benefit of the flock as a whole, not for any one specific member. To me I'm keeping a flock, the individual members of that flock can change.

Good luck!

 

[PioneerChicks]

I had a huge silkie rooster and a small Old English Game bantam pullet both in the same flock. The silkie roo had crazy hormones, and mated everyone in the flock he could. My Enna (the game bantam) wasn't even laying yet (still isn't, but she will start soon) but Bob (the roo) mated her anyway a couple times. I had to pull him off because he is literally 10 times her weight. She is just barely taller than his legs!

Anyway, Bob has started having problems with the other roosters, and because Enna is now doing the squat and letting the roos mate her I have decided to get rid of Bob for the good of the whole flock. I don't like getting rid of any chickens, but Bob was never permanent and I fell that this is best for my flock.

Good luck! And have a great day!

 

[Ms Clucky]

One word. YES. I had a black Frizzle rooster that was a pretty big boy. { Doughboy} He mated with my BB Red, { Brownie} and she cracks to this day. That is why she has problems with her egg laying.

 

[hysop]

In practically any breed the rooster is bigger than the hen. Nature did some things to help protect the hen during the mating process. I'll copy something I wrote that describes the why as well as what of the idealized mating between adults.

The rooster dances for a specific hen. He lowers one wing and sort of circles her. This signals his intent.

The hen squats. This gets her body onto the ground so the rooster’s weight goes into the ground through her entire body and not just her legs. That way she can support a much heavier rooster without hurting her joints.

The rooster hops on and grabs the back of her head. The head grab helps him get in the right position to hit the target and helps him to keep his balance, but its major purpose is to tell the hen to raise her tail out of the way to expose the target. A mating will not be successful if she does not raise her tail and expose the target. The head grab is necessary.

The rooster touches vents and hops off. This may be over in the blink of an eye or it may take a few seconds. But when this is over the rooster’s part is done.

The hen then stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container inside the hen near where the egg starts its internal journey through her internal egg making factory.

Not all adult matings go this way and you are not dealing with adults. Also nature does not deal with absolutes. She may make things safer but that doesn't necessarily mean they are totally safe. Also breeds are manmade. A feral flock in nature would not have a huge difference in size, not like different manmade breeds can.

As others mentioned they have big differences in size yet do not have problems. But that doesn't mean nobody ever has problems, as you can see. The hen squatting to get the rooster's weight in the ground through her body instead of through her legs does help a lot, as long as she squats. The more difference in weight between the hen and rooster the higher the risk.

Another big part of this is technique. Mature hens generally know to squat. Mature roosters generally have learned a better technique and usually have the respect of the hen so the hen is more willing to cooperate. Again, that is not absolute. Not all mature hens cooperate with all mature rosters. Some mature roosters rely more on force than personality. But with most mature flocks there is little drama.

Not all immature pullets cooperate, especially with immature cockerels. Cockerels tend to rely more on brute strength than personality. They are generally bigger and stronger than the pullets and hens and let's face it, their personalities hopped up on those hormones are generally not that appealing to the pullets and hens.

The difference in size between my cockerels and pullets or hens and roosters are not as dramatic as yours. My pullets are not crippled. Some pullets may lose a few feathers, especially around the back of the neck or on the back, but I've never had one ripped like you describe. I think the difference in size and maturity levels have a lot to do with what you are seeing. If you keep them separated as you plan they may be OK together once they all mature. Maybe, but I can't give you any guarantees with that. At some point you may be forced to decide between your little girls or big boys. I try to decide for the benefit of the flock as a whole, not for any one specific member. To me I'm keeping a flock, the individual members of that flock can change.

Good luck!

Thank you!! That narrows it down to possibly having been the young rooster that hurt her and not the experienced older rooster. I will be separating that young rooster.

Yes, everything you described about the dance and the hen going to the ground and fluffing up afterward I’ve seen with the large rooster. So that means she’s okay with that, but I have seen the young rooster trying to mate with other hens and it does not look pretty or smooth (plus they’re not even his hens). So it is time to eat the young rooster as we had planned.

 

[hysop]

Is her poop like that because she’s stressed or is it something more serious? I caged her last night because of her limping. She definitely was not happy about it.