Hen behaving oddly around young rooster

[cafrhe]

Hi All,

I have a flock of 13 approx 7 month old hens--RIR, BO, EE and BAs. They have been man-less since we got them as chicks in March. I have 3 Red Stars who are probably the same age, but got them older--they had a man in the same pen.

Approximately a month ago I got a Barred Rock rooster, he is now approx 5 months old. At the same time a friend gave me 2 younger pullets-the 3 of them have been sharing a quarantine pen together. After quarantine was over, all the chickens have been able to free range and have slowly been getting to know each other. They still go to sleep in 2 different coops though (big coop getting built).

The roo knows that there are mature hens around. He has been making some effort to say Hi. Today I watched him really try to introduce himself to one of the Buff Orpingtons. He sidled up sideways, scratched a little bit on the ground, but made no contact. She fluffed herself up, dropped her wings and low clucked. She looked like a little male turkey. As she moved away she held her wings out.

I take it she did not approve of the roo?? He has not tried to mate any of the girls--is he still too young, or maybe polite and he is getting the cold shoulder...I am hoping for a polite roo, or he is out of here.

I will try to take a pic if I see her like that again.

 

[lightchick]

Does she look like she doing this?

If so then she's actually being receptive to him.
If not then I'd definitely say that I think she isn't used to him yet, but he'll probably fit right in after a couple weeks.

 

[cafrhe]

Nope, definitely not squatting. Most of the girls squat for us (me and my daughter mostly). She looked a lot like those pictures of a big male strutting turkey--only little, fluffy and tan...

kind of like this: http://www.avianinstitute.com/?p=892

She is our one hen who is somewhat defensive on the nest--fluffs her neck and chirrs at us if we open the next boxes when she is on a nest.

 

[lightchick]

I think she might be mad at him. But with my pigeons the female will sometimes fluff up like that when they are actually trying to attract a male to come over. It's probably way different for chickens though.

 

[aart]

Sounds like he's pretty 'polite'. He approached her, made and offer and she said 'I don't think so'.
Smart cockerel, or maybe just not quite mature enough, not to try and chase her down, but he my eventually do just that until he has them submitting then he'll calm down. He'll figure it out soon enough.