How heavy is too heavy for a rooster to breed with a hen?

[Elizabethwood09]

I have a large NHR cockerel and just recently added a bantam girl to the flock. I was worried at first too but he is not rough at all and the few times I have seen him mount her there is no fuss and she just gets up and walks away with no issue. I agree with the others that weight isn't necessarily an issue as much as the mating behavior of the male.

 

[Mistycarmony84]

I have a large NHR cockerel and just recently added a bantam girl to the flock. I was worried at first too but he is not rough at all and the few times I have seen him mount her there is no fuss and she just gets up and walks away with no issue. I agree with the others that weight isn't necessarily an issue as much as the mating behavior of the male.

Thank You
Our big guy is a gentle rooster he doesn’t bully anyone , not even the month old chicks. He is just a sweetheart, but the hens’ safety is priority.

 

[Mistycarmony84]

My rooster is a BEAST. He is a production red. He mates with my sebright, which is itty bitty.It was so hard to watch that because she would scream during mating. Now, I think he understands and keeps his legs on the ground, and mates with her less often, but most of the time he forgets and I have to pull him off. She is actually the only one that squats for him, which I find odd.

Thank You
So far none of the girls have acted weird about him mating with them, but with the weight difference we have worried.

 

[Mistycarmony84]

Good point but that depends on the golden sex links. Some golden sex links may be based on the commercial egg laying hybrids. These will be small, probably the size of a leghorn. Some are made by crossing two dual purpose breeds, these could be the size of RIR's. These are marketing names, not breed names. There are no standards. That makes it hard to generalize.

@Mistycarmony84 you can probably tell which your golden sex links are by size. If you know which hatchery they came from we can probably determine that by going to their web page.

We got most of the chickens from a local breeder, only 13 came from tractor supply. 5 of those being golden sexlinks, 2 leghorns, 2 Cornish cross, 2 americunas, 2 buff orphingtons. My son has 56 chickens total ranging in age from 1 year to 1 month old. The majority of those being those island reds, production reds, and golden sexlinks. He also has a bantam old English game rooster as well.

 

[esme13]

I think the best thing to do is just keep an eye on him and the girls. It’s still early and theirs maturing to happen. But if he is a good and well behaved rooster , you’d want to give him a chance. I’ve had a large rooster who doesn’t mount the small hens , but does have his favorite with the large hens. When I say behave , he separates from the hens that don’t want to have anything to do with him and goes with his other girls. He has a good purpose. Since he’s huge! He was able to put a cooper hawk in its place.

 

[ackie]

Thank you all for all your reply’s I appreciate all the thoughts and information. It really gives me a lot to think about and discuss with my son. They are his chickens lol he is 8 years old so he is really worried about his chickens. He sells the eggs to the local feed store and our neighbors and uses that money to cover the costs of his chickens. So he is really invested.

This is great to hear!

 

[Jenjens]

My rooster is a BEAST. He is a production red. He mates with my sebright, which is itty bitty.It was so hard to watch that because she would scream during mating. Now, I think he understands and keeps his legs on the ground, and mates with her less often, but most of the time he forgets and I have to pull him off. She is actually the only one that squats for him, which I find odd.

 

[Geena]

Thank You for the advice I’ve seen where some people get saddles do you think this might prevent the damage if we decided to try and leave him with the hens? I haven’t looked into them much and don’t even know what they cost, but figured it was worth asking.

Saddles might help, but if he is breeding them so far without incident or injury I'd just keep an eye on the situation for now. As Ridgerunner stated, with living animals you can never predict for sure what's going to happen.

As you can see from the other posts here, it's not so much the size or weight that's a problem. The big difference is they have standard bred chickens and you have a meat bird. As he matures he is likely to have issues with mobility and balance, and that's when it really becomes a problem. Periodically pick the girls up and check for damage just behind and under their wings, because you're not going to be able to see that area from a casual glance.

Are you trying to make meat bird crosses or is it just happenstance that you ended up with a cornishX cockerel?

If you ever see it's becoming a problem for the pullets you can always still keep him and house him separate but adjacent to them. I've found that my boys do quite well with that set up, they can't breed, but they can talk and tidbit and flirt through the fence and seem pretty content with that.

 

[Mistycarmony84]

Saddles might help, but if he is breeding them so far without incident or injury I'd just keep an eye on the situation for now. As Ridgerunner stated, with living animals you can never predict for sure what's going to happen.

As you can see from the other posts here, it's not so much the size or weight that's a problem. The big difference is they have standard bred chickens and you have a meat bird. As he matures he is likely to have issues with mobility and balance, and that's when it really becomes a problem. Periodically pick the girls up and check for damage just behind and under their wings, because you're not going to be able to see that area from a casual glance.

Are you trying to make meat bird crosses or is it just happenstance that you ended up with a cornishX cockerel?

If you ever see it's becoming a problem for the pullets you can always still keep him and house him separate but adjacent to them. I've found that my boys do quite well with that set up, they can't breed, but they can talk and tidbit and flirt through the fence and seem pretty content with that.

He was an accidental purchase when my son wanted to get some more chickens and he and 1 pullett ended up mixed in with the other chicks. He purchased 5 golden sexlinks and 5 leghorns both straight runs. And he ended up with 3 leghorns and 2 Cornish cross( one too and one pullett). The problem is now our 8 year old son and our 3 year old son are attached to them both. We don’t worry about the pullett, but did start to worry when the roof started to try to mate with the other girls. Right now we are keeping them separated till we make a decision what to do.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

If you have any concerns at all, it will be as he gets bigger, and with your golden sex links - cause they stay tiny and just don't have the bone structure. Though as others have pointed out, the squatting does greatly help.

So I'd keep my eyes on that pairing in the coming months as your roo finishes growing out. The Reds, I'd not be concerned with at all.