Do roos prefer to mate with their own variety?

[goedric]

I realize that roosters will mate with anything... my question is, if there are many hens is there any tendency to preferentially mate with their own variety... or are varieties a human thing... so in a mix of very different chickens like marans and cermani... should we expect crosses to be a function of percentages (random) or would there be more marans x marans and cermani x cermani crosses that we would predict randomly.

In genetics some animals prefer to mate with like types (positive assortative mating) ... others do the opposite (negative assortative mating)... anyone know how it is with chickens?

Thx, just wondering

 

[Chicken-lovebirdchihuahua]

Roos will mate with any hen they see once a bantam mated with a jersey giant it was funny

 

[feedman77]

Roos are indescriminate. They will mate with any hen. They will have favorites though.

But if you have enough roos they seem to have their own little group of hens. That stay around them

 

[goedric]

Roos are indescriminate. They will mate with any hen. They will have favorites though.

But if you have enough roos they seem to have their own little group of hens. That stay around them

interesting

 

[RWise]

My head rooster seems to be picky, he will run a hen that is not laying out of the food, and he will not mate her. Although his Daddy liked larger girls he does not, he has his favs and all but 1 are smaller girls. Now once the hen lays an egg, everything changes,,, he then offers up whatever he can find, and expects an exchange,,,,

 

[BantyChooks]

I have noted that some roosters prefer hens of a certain breed. One mutt cockerel of mine chose only RSLs to be in his mini flock that he'd take away from the other males. I have also noticed some preference among my PCs to choose hens of the same breed as them, but that I think is due to the fact they grew up together and are the same age, and as a result are easier for the males to catch.

 

[Sierra rayan]

Hello

 

[Ruralhideaway]

My cochin cockerel clearly prefers the cochin girls. All the cochins I've ever had seemed rather breed selective.

 

[aart]

In genetics some animals prefer to mate with like types (positive assortative mating) ... others do the opposite (negative assortative mating)..

Curious about this.
Domestic animals or wild animals?

 

[AUTZ]

Ugh, right now we have a problem child Roo... He's taken up with the "HBIC" of the farm a Muscovy duck! It's just...unacceptable. She doesn't seem to mind, but we do! He's in time out until we decide how to best handle the situation.
To add: we've taken to calling him a....well, there's no good term. He's tending to terrorize our juvenile hens who are just venturing out... Clearly too young to mate but, for him it seems everybody fair game but the other Roo.