My hen hates my rooster. He favors her.

[blwhitty]

I would love some advice. I have nine hens and one roo. One of my hens wants nothing to do with my rooster and runs from him terrified and stressed by him. He will chase her down to no end to mate and she seems very bothered by him and avoids him at all costs. She's not bullied by him or the other hens, just typical chicken behavior among the flock. She's in the middle of the pecking order.

Background on my flock- she and her two sisters were the first three to my flock a year and a half ago, April 2021, as chicks. They are just a year and a half old hens. I added four more chicks, in March 2022, which included the roo and his three sisters. Three other mature hens came about two months after that. He mates all the hens and seems to share his love fairly equally with no one overly worked. We let them all free range about 70% of the time. Their coop and run space is just adequate enough for the size of my flock according to all recommendations, blogs, experts, etc.

Only this one girl seems to be stressed by him. She is otherwise a healthy and happy hen. She does lay. She loves people and gets along with the rest of the flock. She does squat for me, which none of my other hens do.

I'd love any feedback and solutions. Thanks!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

She does squat for me, which none of my other hens do.

Aaaannnddd.... guess who she favors as the "rooster" in her flock?

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Sorry for the snarky response! It just popped out. WELCOME to Backyard Chickens! Hoping others will come along with more useful advice. @Shadrach for one expert, comes to mind.

 

[blwhitty]

Aaaannnddd.... guess who she favors as the "rooster" in her floc

Haha, right!?

Aaaannnddd.... guess who she favors as the "rooster" in her flock?

 

[Ridgerunner]

So he is about 6 months old, still a cockerel but he seems to have won over the hens and pullets in the flock except this one hen. I've had a few cockerels that age be able to manage that. None of them, including this one hen. is "overworked". She is not bullied by anyone. Other than running from him they all act like a flock of chickens. She squats for you, not him, and the others don't squat for you. All interesting pieces of information, thanks for including enough details.

She appears to be in the middle of the pecking order. That appears to eliminate one theory. What I think may be happening is that a mature hen will sometimes expect a male to behave like a good father to her potential chicks before she allows him to mate. Sometimes she may fight him or beat him up but usually she just runs from him. He doesn't measure up to her standards, though he appears to meet the others' standards. I put that down to each hen has her own individual personality.

Aaaannnddd.... guess who she favors as the "rooster" in her flock?

I think Barnyard Chaos is exactly right. She sees you as the superior rooster and is not ready to settle for second best, not as the father to her potential chicks. I was actually thinking about @Shadrach and how he says the girls choose which rooster they want to hang with when they get a choice.

So what can you do? From what I read no one is getting physically injured. He is still fairly young. Be patient and let them work it out. Keep doing what you are doing. He sounds like he will make a solid rooster, give him a chance to mature some more and meet her standards.

 

[3KillerBs]

You've already gotten good advice.

I'll reiterate that your cockerel is still very young. It's impressive that he's managed to win over the others already. Give him time and this last holdout is likely to come around as the young gentleman matures.

I saw the most stubborn, resistant hen in my flock become so much a couple with my Langshan, Ludwig, that when I sold him I sold her with along with him.

 

[Shadrach]

It can be tough being a rooster. You've got the comb and wattles, beautiful feathering. You can out crow all the other roosters and offer everything to your hens but the one you fancy most thinks you're a creep.

Lets face it, if one had to chase every hen around and put up with the pecks and the bad language every time one needed to fertilize something one would get seriously knackered.

Fortunately it doesn't stay like that for long. Some hens take the approach, well he's as good as it gets given he's the only one. Some hens go yippy and crouch when the rooster just looks at her. Some hens; well one could be digging up diamonds (whatever they may be for chickens) and she'll still say no. The important thing to note is the hen is saying no.
I don't know what it is about cockerels. I think most have puberty driven hearing problems and no doesn't register. I'm happy to report that all the roosters I've known sort this hearing problem out once they mature. Maybe proper hearing is the last thing to grow in.

There could be lots of reasons @Ridgerunner has covered them above. I think she sees you as the better option to the rooster is quite likely. It is hard for rooster to compete with someone who brings food in bucket fulls when he can barely manage a decent worm.

It could also be that your hen doesn't think your cockerel is old enough to be a responsible dad.

I've had a couple of hens that took over a year before they would crouch for a rooster and like @3KillerBs mentions, both these hens became one of the roosters favourites in the end and it took death to part them.

Hens choose their roosters. The rooster comes to realise that he needs to get the hen to follow him and crouch for him. He may well be able to force a hen to mate, but he can't fertilizeher egg if she doensn't want him to and he can't make her sit on them and hatch chicks either. She has to want to carry his genes forward for the whole mum and dad bit to work.

There are complications with differing keeping situations but essentially them's the rules above.

Time will probably sort it all out and as long as the hen isn't getting physically injured you can just wait.
If you are in a hurry then you would have to change your relationship with the hen and the cockerel.
Don't pick the hen up or feed hand feed her anything. Offer all the food you give to the cockerel first. The hen needs to see that you see the cockerel as the boss and he gives out the food.

This article may help you understand why this might work.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/understanding-your-rooster.75056/

 

[Oldegarlicshnapp]

I’d suggest boosting her sex drive. You can use additives, or sunlight and diet. I’ve been recommended to use wheatgerm oil and chickpeas.

 

[3KillerBs]

I've had a couple of hens that took over a year before they would crouch for a rooster and like @3KillerBs mentions, both these hens became one of the roosters favourites in the end and it took death to part them.

Before I sold my Black Langshan, he would supervise the Blue Australorp while he mated. He never interfered, just supervised -- as if making sure it was being done right.

Then, when I had both of them as rooster and senior cockerel, I also had some youngsters waiting for me to finish Camp Cockerel and they'd reached the stage of chasing the hens. The biggest, and to human eyes, finest of the boys was NOT permitted to mate. He and two of his brothers ran Ludwig and Rameses ragged breaking up their attempts and answering the calls of unhappy hens.

But the 4th cockerel, a Marans cross, must have been made of the right stuff because I walked from the run into the coop one day and found him mating with a willing hen with both Ludwig and Rameses supervising but not interfering.

During this period I also had an amusing incident where I saw Rameses dominance-mating a hen who was resisting his efforts to round up latestayers to go to roost. Ludwig CHARGED out of the coop ready to rescue the complaining girl, saw that it was Rameses and not one of the cockerels, and stood there supervising before helping Rameses finish herding the flock to roost.

 

[blwhitty]

Sorry for the snarky response! It just popped out. WELCOME to Backyard Chickens! Hoping others will come along with more useful advice. @Shadrach for one expert, comes to mind.

Thanks so much! I didn't take offense-found it funny but you're probably right.