Do Chickens Get Married?

[Don 27]

These guys will happily operate as polygamist too. Their behavior changes markedly when they do. I am trying to keep things relatable to kids operating from expectations on monogamy. We can do polygamy later. It will not be fun explaining variations in human breeding systems.

I just say to my kids it ant right having more then one wife or husband... I Keep it simple.

Behavior similar to typical flocks until roughly May. Then the games at least have capacity for going broody themselves. Additionally they take over rearing first brood as hen starts another clutch. The behavior I can find no documentation on in wild jungle fowls so maybe a developed through domestication. It does have survival benefit when rooster has only one mate.

So what your saying is the hens that aren't broody take over rearing the chicks from the broody hen, while the broody hen gets to hatching another brood? ..

It does have survival benefit when rooster has only one mate.

In a way, yes. Except if the rooster(s) mate falls victim as prey then he will have no other way of passing on his genes unless he manages to find another mate.

 

[centrarchid]

So what your saying is the hens that aren't broody take over rearing the chicks from the broody hen, while the broody hen gets to hatching another brood? ..

The roosters have capacity for going broody to aid hen with rearing chicks. I have not seen hens invest in offspring hatched another hen in the same manner.

See link below. Used to see it fairly often on walks where cock paired with only one hen and breeding pens holding a cock and hen.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/what-to-look-for-in-a-broody-rooster.882368/

 

[centrarchid]

My kids go to work with me before dawn as part of social distancing we are practicing with co-workers. I open gates, unlock doors, check operation of production systems and verify data entry before anyone else gets to lab. I am gone a solid hour before the crew comes in and they have to stay well apart. Effort must be directed towards kids at same time where most of the time they are not able to enter buildings that I go into with exception with building housing chickens I work with. This morning I provided son a novel experience. His sister slept in car.


Hen below is not Love Heart, rather she is Butterscotch, which is well into her second week of incubating. I had my son place his hand under her to feel the brood patch she has pressed against eggs she is incubating. She pecked a little, but not hard. He had a lot to describe. Photograph taken as lights were coming on slowly so lighting poor.

 

[centrarchid]

Proper term should be polygyny for the harem natural to chickens. In can also employ monogamy which we are enforcing with this project. It is also easy to demonstrate polygamy where females are also mating outside the harem either by choice or otherwise. The harems can also have an attending satellite male that follows group far enough away to avoid attention by harem master / rooster. The satellites activities are often interpreted as cuckoldry although he will step in to take over harem with chicks if harem master removed. He is a back up daddy.

Over time there have been lots of societies that have at least transiently practiced some sort of polygamy. In some cases the females have practiced polyandry. Chickens do not do the latter under normal conditions, but they will employ

 

[Chickassan]

Your kids are a hoot
Observation here is two hens have obvious favor,high communication there.
This male oddly dosen't mate his offspring since tying the knot.

 

[sdm111]

Centra I'd just like to interject and advise people not to assume all males or females will take over chicks. My other broodfowl will and have killed chicks that wandered into their pens.

 

[centrarchid]

This weekend we will setup another very similar nest and pen under a honey locust tree. Will try to use something other than serial box to cover bottom.

We are on track to have three concurrent broods going by middle of next week. Kids will help me prepare pens that will house them. Most of the chicks will be consumed at 5 weeks which will difficult to explain to youngest child why it is necessary.

 

[Don 27]

The roosters have capacity for going broody to aid hen with rearing chicks. I have not seen hens invest in offspring hatched another hen in the same manner.

See link below. Used to see it fairly often on walks where cock paired with only one hen and breeding pens holding a cock and hen.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/what-to-look-for-in-a-broody-rooster.882368/

My birds don't show any of this behavior . What breeds of roosters will help with chick rearing ? Would you recommend I get some of these traits mixed in with my flock?

 

[aart]

Most of the chicks will be consumed at 5 weeks which will difficult to explain to youngest child why it is necessary.

Consumed by who/what?
Most of them or just males or....?

 

[centrarchid]

Centra I'd just like to interject and advise people not to assume all males or females will take over chicks. My other broodfowl will and have killed chicks that wandered into their pens.

I will state with solid experience on MY games that once males start dropping first flight feathers in a pair-wise manner from wings, they are open to bonding with chicks.

I never said all females and tried to correct that with another poster previously. I also never said all chickens at any point. My game hens will only take on chicks that are not their own at specific stages of a breeding cycle and chicks must also be open to bonding at the same time. There is biology to this that makes sense once you know what to look for.


To make it clear in bold. Not all roosters have the capacity to bond with chicks, even within games. Secondly, my roosters also have periods when they appear not able to bond and other times they are when they are based on molt cycle as indicated above. My roosters can and also do kill chicks that they are not bonded to. So do hens. The males being hard on chicks has for me been far more pronounced in cock pens chicks can drift through and where cock/stag was not involved in breeding.

My outright broody roosters will attack very aggressively chicks/juveniles they are not imprinted on.