If a pullet accepts a rooster....?

[EmsoffLambs]

I've got some 20 week old light brahma and dark cornish pullets and roos. I've read that pullets won't let a rooster breed them unless they are laying. We'll I've caught them in the act a couple times. Does this mean that they are laying and hiding the eggs? Or just that they will be laying soon?

 

[Dawn419]

Our boys were bad for "taking advantage" long before the girls started laying...

Dawn

 

[GoodEgg]

I don't have that long an experience with chickens, but I can certainly say that they DO allow breeding before they are laying.

With the ducks it was easier to tell. They were breeding often every day for over a month before they started laying.

I do notice that, generally speaking, it is the earlier-maturing (and those expected to lay soonest) that the cockerels breed soonest. (My red sex-links are bald at the backs of their heads now!) Many of my pullets still don't allow them to breed at all. However, the banty pullets are allowing them to breed, and I don't expect eggs from them until after all the other breeds have started.

FWIW,
trish