MJ's little flock

[LozzyR]

Hens know when they are related to a rooster and will try not to mate with them. Should the rooster successfully mate with her, the hen can expel his seed should she wish to do so.

Wow! Did you learn that in your animal behaviour course? Good on the girls for having the final say!

 

[MaryJanet]

Here's Mary not making a fuss about the pullets in the henhouse so proud of her.

 

[Shadrach]

I have to ask; do roosters get all randy with their mums/daughters/sisters or is there an inherent gene thing where they know to spread the gene pool elsewhere? Or is that not a problem?

It is a problem.
It's also quite complicated.
The chickens here tend to mate father to daughter, mother to son. Siblings are avoided where possible. It's a consequence of human keeping arrangements.
Here it tends to be mother and son, father and daughter. It's something that many breeders do not seem to understand.
Roughly, you can go 7 generations of generational inbreeding before one encounters problems. It's one of the reasons hatchery chickens are not a good bet.
The short term (maybe 50 years) is to only let the senior hen and rooster breed. The view where I live and among other people who are serious breeders is the seniors get to be seniors for a, or many reasons. Here the emphasis is on strong survivability and not on what looks nice.
So, if you have a senior breeding pair and you only let them hatch and raise chicks then that is only one breeding iteration. If the seniors live and breed for a decade then one can pick the survivors of their offspring and do it again for another decade. After 7 decades new genes need to be introduced.
There aren't many chicken keepers here on BYC with 7 decades of experience, let alone record keeping. The men that have kept fighting birds here probably have the greatest knowledge, far in excess of anything you can find on BYC. Because of the nature of cock fighting, breeders from all over the area get to meet other breeders and cocks and hens are swapped or bought. Some travel to other countries to get a particular chicken.
The stupidity of the American breeder and hatchery system is astounding and will eventually lead to irreparable damage to the chicken.
The above is a simplistic model but basically that is how the knowledgeable have done it for centuries.

 

[Shadrach]

I suppose some day Mary will lose her captaincy. I'm not looking forward to it. She's always been benevolent but assertive.

She may not. Fat Bird, Geddit and Blue Spot stayed top hens in their tribes.

 

[Shadrach]

Wow! Did you learn that in your animal behaviour course? Good on the girls for having the final say!

It's always been the hen that chooses the rooster.
If you haven't read this it's worth reading just to understand how hierarchy and mating arrangements are made in a free range flock.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/understanding-your-rooster.75056/

 

[BY Bob]

Wow! Did you learn that in your animal behaviour course? Good on the girls for having the final say!

Amongst other places, yes. It is a valuable skill when roosters can force their affections and helps with genetics especially in a small flock setting. @Shadrach comments on how many times they can interbreed is interesting as well.

 

[Shadrach]

Here's Mary not making a fuss about the pullets in the henhouse so proud of her.

View attachment 2015907

It looks like everyone is getting used to each other.

 

[Ribh]

I know I've told this before somewhere but: when I 1st had chickens I bought rescues with my friend on the nearby farm. She chose to free range & consequentially opted for a rooster as well, thinking she'd be able to raise chicks & the rooster would protect her girls. Her rooster turned into the biggest, blackest, meanest rooster I have ever known. He was absolutely gorgeous to look @ but he terrorised everything, including his own hens. The girls hated him & avoided him @ all costs. Then one day he disappeared. We're pretty sure the girls eventually turned on him en mass & pecked him to death. He was certainly pecked bloody while still alive. I had so much respect for those hens & figure a really terrible rooster won't be tolerated by the flock. A little extreme & perhaps I'm wrong but it certainly seemed that way.

 

[Shadrach]

I know I've told this before somewhere but: when I 1st had chickens I bought rescues with my friend on the nearby farm. She chose to free range & consequentially opted for a rooster as well, thinking she'd be able to raise chicks & the rooster would protect her girls. Her rooster turned into the biggest, blackest, meanest rooster I have ever known. He was absolutely gorgeous to look @ but he terrorised everything, including his own hens. The girls hated him & avoided him @ all costs. Then one day he disappeared. We're pretty sure the girls eventually turned on him en mass & pecked him to death. He was certainly pecked bloody while still alive. I had so much respect for those hens & figure a really terrible rooster won't be tolerated by the flock. A little extreme & perhaps I'm wrong but it certainly seemed that way.

It's odd you should mention this. One of the men in the village said something similar about an ex fighting rooster that got retired and moved in with some hens. The hens hated him and apparently they set on him and beat him up. He didn't die from the hens I might add.

 

[Ribh]

It's odd you should mention this. One of the men in the village said something similar about an ex fighting rooster that got retired and moved in with some hens. The hens hated him and apparently they set on him and beat him up. He didn't die from the hens I might add.

Ok, so not just me. Sometimes I worry my observations are a little out there. I will add my friend's flock was much happier & did far better without that rooster.