chick rooster tried to mate with his mama

[NC29mom]

We have a pen where we keep big mama (BO hen) and her 3 1/2 month chick, which we found out is a rooster. Also in the pen is skint back (BO hen) and her 1 month old chick. Yesterday, I noticed the rooster jumped on his mama's back, bit her on the head and was acting like he was mating with her (as my big rooster does). I'm thinking it might be time to separate the rooster from the mama?

Also we have 5 chicks inside, all born over the last few weeks. My husband wants to put all the chicks together, including the one month old chick as mentioned above. Wonder if that's a good idea? He wants to put the mama's back with the flock (10 buffs and 1 mutt, but gorgeous, rooster).

 

[CoopCrazy]

I would say that the lone i month old would prefer to be with other chicks.. I would just watch them at time of integration and make sure they are not fighting... As far as mom and son it really isnt as big a deal as folks make it out to be..now I wouldnt personnaly hatch any eggs from mom/son breeding but truly I dont think it would hurt anything.. You have to realize with fowl there really isnt any connection to family so they are just doing whats natural to them...

 

[PatS]

Mama must be wanting to go back to the flock by now! Our older batch of BO chicks were six weeks when they joined, but they free range all day. They still get picked on when it comes time to roost, but they are getting really big now (10 weeks tomorrow) so soon they'll be pecking back! If they are kept in a coop/run all day, I don't know when the best time to integrate them. But there will be some figuring out of pecking order no matter what happens.

As for the mating, that is bound to happen. I don't think most chickens keep track of who their parents, kids, brothers, and sisters are. Our Mom BO went from protecting her little ones to pecking on them at roost time in two days! Once they left her care, they were just other chickens as far as she was concerned, or so it seemed to us.

 

[NC29mom]

We do keep them in a coop, but we let them out every night for several hours to free range. I really think it's their favorite time of the day!!

Thanks for the input!