How Do Roosters Identify Hens?

[Joel Just Joel]

Have a single rooster with 4 hens in established flock. Am now adding 16, yes 16 new young hens. These new girls are still pretty young at just 6 weeks, but I expect one day soon the rooster will realize they are hens. Just curious: what are the cues that help a rooster ID a hen? Pheromones, maybe? Long eyelashes?

 

[nuthatched]

It might be best to keep the little girls seperate until about 20 weeks, the rooster will squish them. If you can visually recognize people of different ages and sex, there's no reason roosters can't within their own species and even other species.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

I do not know how roosters identify the 'state' of a hen but good mature roosters know which hens are laying and which are not. My rooster will not mate any pullets until they are about to lay, and he will not breed any hens that are not laying. He will also not feed those hens, he will only give food to hens that are laying.
I haven't got a clue how he knows this but he does without fail.

 

[BesideStillWaters]

I do not know how roosters identify the 'state' of a hen but good mature roosters know which hens are laying and which are not. My rooster will not mate any pullets until they are about to lay, and he will not breed any hens that are not laying. He will also not feed those hens, he will only give food to hens that are laying.
I haven't got a clue how he knows this but he does without fail.

I'm impressed. I had a rooster (sold him) that mated the other roosters. Other roosters were not a fan. Also had a rooster try to catch and mate a wild rabbit. Maybe some roosters are smarter than others.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

I'm impressed. I had a rooster (sold him) that mated the other roosters. Other roosters were not a fan. Also had a rooster try to catch and mate a wild rabbit. Maybe some roosters are smarter than others.

My rooster is coming up 2 years old, so he is fully mature. I wouldn't have given him a character reference as a cockerel, but he didn't get much chance to step out of line due to the older hens kicking his butt.

 

[Weeg]

Have a single rooster with 4 hens in established flock. Am now adding 16, yes 16 new young hens. These new girls are still pretty young at just 6 weeks, but I expect one day soon the rooster will realize they are hens. Just curious: what are the cues that help a rooster ID a hen? Pheromones, maybe? Long eyelashes?

This article might interest you- https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/

 

[BesideStillWaters]

My rooster is coming up 2 years old, so he is fully mature. I wouldn't have given him a character reference as a cockerel, but he didn't get much chance to step out of line due to the older hens kicking his butt.

Ah, that's a good point. Mine were still cockerels when that happened.

Also my older hens kicked this cockerel's butt, until one day he fought them until he achieved submission.... my hens were terrified of him after that.

 

[abpatchy]

I'm impressed. I had a rooster (sold him) that mated the other roosters. Other roosters were not a fan. Also had a rooster try to catch and mate a wild rabbit. Maybe some roosters are smarter than others.

He was "mating" with them to show dominance over the other roosters. They do that sometimes. I have even seen hens do it with other hens. Seems a little sick, but what can you do?

 

[aart]

He was "mating" with them to show dominance over the other roosters. They do that sometimes. I have even seen hens do it with other hens. Seems a little sick, but what can you do?

Not really...once you learn that they are not actually 'mating'.

 

[3KillerBs]

Instinct.

I knew when my girls were done with their molts and getting back to laying when I found muddy footprints on their backs.

Once I saw that I had eggs within 2 weeks.