Just so you know what you are looking at. A good chicken mating often goes like this.
The rooster dances. He drops one wing and sort of circles. This tells the hen his intent.
The hen squats, gets flat on the ground. This spreads the rooster’s weight so it gets to the ground through her entire body, not just her legs. That way a hen can support a much heavier rooster without problems.
The rooster grabs the back of her neck and hops on. The head grab helps him keep his balance and get in the right position to hit the target. It also is the hen’s signal to raise her tail out of the way so he can hit the target.
The rooster touches vents and hops off. The hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm in the right place.
Sometimes the rooster does not dance but just ambushes the hen. This is not good and the hen does not appreciate it.
Quite often instead of squatting the hen runs away. Several things can happen. The rooster may just walk away. No big deal.
The rooster may chase her and she almost immediately squats. She just wanted to see if he was serious.
Sometimes the hen keeps running and the rooster chases. He may give up or he may catch her and force her. I don’t consider any of these bad as long as she squats and the hen in not injured.
As you can see, it takes both the rooster and the hen to do their part for it to work out. If either does not do their part, it can go bad.
The mating ritual is not just about sex. It’s also about dominance. The one on bottom is accepting the dominance of the one on top, whether willingly or whether forced. For a rooster to do his job as flock master, he has to be dominant. Without it, he can’t keep the eggs fertile, break up fights and keep peace in his flock, and what good is him giving a warning of danger if they won’t listen to him? That's why I think him forcing a hen is not all that bad as long as she is not injured. Some hens have to be forced to accept his dominance for the flock to function peacefully.
The rooster doesn’t get this dominance just by brute force. He has to win the respect of the hens by dancing for them, finding them food, keeping peace in his flock, watching for danger, and doing the things he is supposed to do. He also needs to just WOW! them with his magnificence and self-confidence.
When they are mature, they usually work this out. But yours are teenagers, not adults. The cockerel is trying to win dominance of the flock. Neither the pullets nor the cockerel are mature enough to really know what to do. The cockerel has matured to the point the hormones are running wild, both for sex and flock dominance. The pullets probably don’t have the hormones that mean sexual maturity yet and are still trying to be the dominant one in the flock. They are all a mess.
The good news is that they will probably mature pretty soon and grow out of this stage. The cockerel will probably learn to dance and exert his dominance through force of will, not just physically. The pullets will mature to the point they accept that dominance. The cockerel trying to mount the pullets is a pretty good sign they are probably getting close to laying but it’s not a guarantee, even if the pullet willing squats. I’ve seen a pullet squat about two months before she started laying, just accepting his dominance, but it is a real good sign when one squats, even if she has to be chased a bit.
Things will probably be fairly disruptive the next few weeks while they mature enough to get those hormones under control and learn proper technique. Some cockerels and some pullets never mature enough to fulfill their duties in a happy flock, but if given time, most will. A whole lot of immature cockerels literally lose their heads at this stage.
It’s not unusual either for a rooster to mate a hen right after they are let out of the coop or say you take separate him from the flock for a bit and he rejoins it. That’s just letting everyone know that it is his flock, part of that dominance thing. That may explain why you see this behavior more when they are let out.
Hope this helps a bit. Good luck!
