Chickens mated

[DanielleGut]

How do I know if my chickens were successful in mating? They are 14 weeks old. I noticed my Rooster only tries it with a certain hen. I've seen him do it a couple times already. We haven't started getting any eggs from these chickens yet. Are they even old enough?

The are the reddish/

orange ones in the pics. My Rooster is a big baby and I was inspecting a spot on his leg on the last pic.

 

[neo71665]

If you aint getting eggs yet from the hens they aint mated. You have a young roo and he is just trying. The roos mature long before the hens and will push their luck trying to mate.

 

[333113]

If they aren't laying yet, does it matter if they were successful?

I don't think you need to worry. Most of the time these things work out fine!

 

[Northwest_Wannabe]

If they aren't laying eggs then you won't have any fertile eggs yet Generally if you have a rooster who isn't old old (like ehh maybe over 4 years old? maybe even older) you should have no issues with fertility during the spring, summer, and autumn (a lot of chickens slow down and lose fertility for winter, just my experience though) Chances are when they start laying the eggs will be fertile if you've seen him breed.

 

[DanielleGut]

Very good points! I'm obviously new too this! Lol. At what age do these type start laying? I got them from tractor supply and they said they were bantams....but I question that because they are very big! Much bigger then my bielefelders and they are just a week apart....

 

[Northwest_Wannabe]

Looks like standard sized New Hampshire reds to me! I think they lay between 5-8 months?

 

[neo71665]

Those all look like my Isa browns. The last pic looks like a isa brown hen to me. Doesn't have any saddle feathers and well if I'm correct on the breed he if a he will be white. You sure you don't have young hens just trying to get their pecking order? You pick the "boy" out on his red comb alone?

Tractor supply is known for mixing their birds all to crap. Unless you know what the chicks look like trying to buy anything from them is a gamble. That said I did buy my girls from there but I been around chicks since my granny was raising them and I'm old now.

Their combs are bright red so they might lay any day.

 

[Northwest_Wannabe]

Those all look like my Isa browns. The last pic looks like a isa brown hen to me. Doesn't have any saddle feathers and well if I'm correct on the breed he if a he will be white. You sure you don't have young hens just trying to get their pecking order? You pick the "boy" out on his red comb alone?

Their combs are bright red so they might lay any day.

The last photo is for sure a rooster, his got rooster hackles and compared to the other chickens his comb and wattles are HUGE!

 

[DanielleGut]

Those all look like my Isa browns. The last pic looks like a isa brown hen to me. Doesn't have any saddle feathers and well if I'm correct on the breed he if a he will be white. You sure you don't have young hens just trying to get their pecking order? You pick the "boy" out on his red comb alone?

Tractor supply is known for mixing their birds all to crap. Unless you know what the chicks look like trying to buy anything from them is a gamble. That said I did buy my girls from there but I been around chicks since my granny was raising them and I'm old now.

Their combs are bright red so they might lay any day.

Yeah he's definitely a boy. He's crowing and his comb and wattles are way bigger then the girls. Plus he's starting to get his long tail feathers.

And no...he definitely mounted her and was on top of her for about 10secs....

 

[DanielleGut]

The last photo is for sure a rooster, his got rooster hackles and compared to the other chickens his comb and wattles are HUGE!

Yes and that pic is about 4 weeks old now... his tail feathers are coming in