How old does my rooster have to be to mate?

[C H I C K E N]

I have two roosters to mate with my 14 hens, one is a gray Orpington, the other one is a Barnevelder, and I have had them for 3 months now. My question is, how much older do they have to be to successfully mate?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Probably another month at least. By grey, do you mean lavender?

 

[C H I C K E N]

Probably another month at least. By grey, do you mean lavender?

I think it's a gray Orpington but he might be a lavender one.

 

[nuthatched]

X2 about another month.
Why do you ask? Are they getting pushy?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I think it's a gray orpington but he might be a lavender one.

There aren't grey orpingtons. It's not a color

 

[Tonyroo]

I think the sperm for young males mature at 6 months for most breeds. The hatchability gets better as they get closer to being a year old. Just something I noticed when I started the hatching adventure.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Hi and welcome to BYC, glad you joined. As others already said, 4 months is about the earliest that cockerels become fertile, but sometimes they need to be several months older, depending on breed and size. And to clarify your question, you are asking about fertility, not how old to "mate." The reason I mention this is because I saw a 9-week-old Easter Egger cockerel "mate" his sister yesterday while she was taking a dust bath. The instinct was there, but not yet the fertility. (I separated him as soon as I saw that.) My point being that dependiing on their age, just because your cockerels begin to mate with your pullets doesn't mean you will immediately get fertile eggs.

If you would like to post a picture of your Orpington, we can confirm if he is Lavender in color.

 

[C H I C K E N]

Hi and welcome to BYC, glad you joined. As others already said, 4 months is about the earliest that cockerels become fertile, but sometimes they need to be several months older, depending on breed and size. And to clarify your question, you are asking about fertility, not how old to "mate." The reason I mention this is because I saw a 9-week-old Easter Egger cockerel "mate" his sister yesterday while she was taking a dust bath. The instinct was there, but not yet the fertility. (I separated him as soon as I saw that.) My point being that dependiing on their age, just because your cockerels begin to mate with your pullets doesn't mean you will immediately get fertile eggs.

If you would like to post a picture of your Orpington, we can confirm if he is Lavender in color.

Thanks, that's really helpful. I posted the pictures in editing the top post on this thread.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I once had a cockerel successfully mating at 4 months of age. I know because I was getting fertile eggs and had no mature roosters. His “siblings” were all the same age and one didn’t even start crowing until 7 months of age and didn’t mate for a while after. The girls hated him at first. So yeah. It varies a lot.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Yes your cockerel is a Lavender Orpington.