Omg I thought she was dead..unusual mating behavior?

[z3lda3]

Jeezy creezy! I’ve got a bantam rooster 14 weeks old (Gomez) who has been mating with his flock mate Morticia a 14 week old bantam. She HATES it. She knows not to turn her back to him, if he chases her, she’ll come running onto my lap. As far as I can tell he doesn’t injure her, no wounds or missing feathers. Gomez does try to mate with every chicken, but they’re standards and he doesn’t have the hight to mount them. Anyway, today he was mating with Morticia and she just flopped over. He backed off and away but she was just lying there not even blinking. I honestly thought she was dead. I was frantically picking her up and she jumped up seemingly fine. No injuries I could see, eating drinking climbing like always. WTH was that?? Was Morticia playing dead? Or was she so terrified she collapsed? Is this normal chicken behavior?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

No, she was not playing dead, she likely is exhausted.

Separate out the hormonal cockerel and give this girl a break. He's overmating her already. She's quite young.

Do you need a rooster?

 

[z3lda3]

No, she was not playing dead, she likely is exhausted.

Separate out the hormonal cockerel and give this girl a break. He's overmating her already. She's quite young.

Do you need a rooster?

I need a rooster as much as anybody else does?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I need a rooster as much as anybody else does?

Which is to say, not at all, unless you plan to hatch chicks, and with a pullet that's probably not even laying yet, you're not.

 

[z3lda3]

Which is to say, not at all, unless you plan to hatch chicks, and with a pullet that's probably not even laying yet, you're not.

Which is to say yes, we do need roosters. Roosters maintain balance within a flock. And yes I do plan to have chicks.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Well, then at some point you would need his services as a breeder, but for now I agree with @Wyorp Rock that this pullet needs a break from him. Cockerels typically become hormonal much sooner than pullets of the same age, and they are merciless, as you are seeing. Most roosters do well with a flock of several hens. You do not say how many females your cockerel has access to. If she is the only female his size, she's definitely being overbred. Pullets, when they start laying, will lay eggs much smaller than they will a few months later as they mature. It's best not to try to hatch these small eggs from an immature pullet. But to answer your question, she may be terrified, traumatized and in pain from the overbreeding. She could have injuries to her head, neck and comb as well as to her sides and under her wings from his spurs. Her behavior is a definite cry for help.

 

[z3lda3]

Well, then at some point you would need his services as a breeder, but for now I agree with @Wyorp Rock that this pullet needs a break from him. Cockerels typically become hormonal much sooner than pullets of the same age, and they are merciless, as you are seeing. Most roosters do well with a flock of several hens. You do not say how many females your cockerel has access to. If she is the only female his size, she's definitely being overbred. Pullets, when they start laying, will lay eggs much smaller than they will a few months later as they mature. It's best not to try to hatch these small eggs from an immature pullet. But to answer your question, she may be terrified, traumatized and in pain from the overbreeding. She could have injuries to her head, neck and comb as well as to her sides and under her wings from his spurs. Her behavior is a definite cry for help.

I have a flock of 12 hens and my bantam roo. I have some leg bars about his size, he mates with them as well but Morticia is his pick. I have looked everywhere on her looking for injuries, I don’t see any PHYSICALLY, but I don’t want her mentally miserable! Should I just separate Gomez and Morticia? Or Gomez all to himself? He really is a great rooster, with this exception.

 

[azygous]

When I first got chickens and ended up with my first "accidental" rooster, I thought it was normal for roosters to mate with the hens regardless of how the hens felt about it. Sixteen years later, after observing the behaviors of hens with roosters, I now know that the normal way of things is for the hen to signal to the rooster that she is receptive to mating, much as cats and dogs do. She does this by her body language, and you will see her quickly squat for him a split second before he makes body contact with her. If you don't catch that split second, you can get the impression he is forcing himself on the hen.

Your hen is not receptive to the roosters advances. He is not a good rooster if he can't respect this. A good rooster, like a good human man, will take their cues from the female, and they will not go any further if the hen is not receptive. For a rooster to insist on mating a hen that is not receptive, he is endangering that hen. Your hen is showing every sign of acute stress from your roosters unwanted advances. You must not continue to let him have access to this hen or you risk having what happened to one of my hens happen to your hen.

I had an older hen that did not want my younger rooster anywhere near her, but he completely disregarded her signals. One day he chased her into the coop where he cornered her. She was resisting his advances with everything she had in her. The rooster was intent on overpowering her at all costs, and it ended very badly for this hen.

In the process of him attacking her and her putting up such a struggle, her comb was nearly ripped clean off her head, and the severe scalp injury was just about as bad as you can imagine. Luckily I rescued her before he continued his assault that may have resulted in her death. I did some major first aid on her, managed to graft her comb back on her head and save it. She made a full recovery, but never again did I allow the two of them to be in proximity with each other.

This was not a bad rooster. For some reason his appalling behavior was only with this one hen. He has behaved like a perfect gentleman with every other hen in the flock, never to repeat this awful behavior again in the seven years since that incident.

My advice is to do whatever is necessary to keep your rooster away from this hen. If you do not, you can expect a tragedy at some point.

 

[z3lda3]

When I first got chickens and ended up with my first "accidental" rooster, I thought it was normal for roosters to mate with the hens regardless of how the hens felt about it. Sixteen years later, after observing the behaviors of hens with roosters, I now know that the normal way of things is for the hen to signal to the rooster that she is receptive to mating, much as cats and dogs do. She does this by her body language, and you will see her quickly squat for him a split second before he makes body contact with her. If you don't catch that split second, you can get the impression he is forcing himself on the hen.

Your hen is not receptive to the roosters advances. He is not a good rooster if he can't respect this. A good rooster, like a good human man, will take their cues from the female, and they will not go any further if the hen is not receptive. For a rooster to insist on mating a hen that is not receptive, he is endangering that hen. Your hen is showing every sign of acute stress from your roosters unwanted advances. You must not continue to let him have access to this hen or you risk having what happened to one of my hens happen to your hen.

I had an older hen that did not want my younger rooster anywhere near her, but he completely disregarded her signals. One day he chased her into the coop where he cornered her. She was resisting his advances with everything she had in her. The rooster was intent on overpowering her at all costs, and it ended very badly for this hen.

In the process of him attacking her and her putting up such a struggle, her comb was nearly ripped clean off her head, and the severe scalp injury was just about as bad as you can imagine. Luckily I rescued her before he continued his assault that may have resulted in her death. I did some major first aid on her, managed to graft her comb back on her head and save it. She made a full recovery, but never again did I allow the two of them to be in proximity with each other.

This was not a bad rooster. For some reason his appalling behavior was only with this one hen. He has behaved like a perfect gentleman with every other hen in the flock, never to repeat this awful behavior again in the seven years since that incident.

My advice is to do whatever is necessary to keep your rooster away from this hen. If you do not, you can expect a tragedy at some point.

I just replied saying Morticia is my roosters pick, and besides Gomez doing this to Morticia, he is a great rooster. I can separate them, I’ve got the space. Will they have to be separated indefinitely?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

When I first got chickens and ended up with my first "accidental" rooster, I thought it was normal for roosters to mate with the hens regardless of how the hens felt about it. Sixteen years later, after observing the behaviors of hens with roosters, I now know that the normal way of things is for the hen to signal to the rooster that she is receptive to mating, much as cats and dogs do. She does this by her body language, and you will see her quickly squat for him a split second before he makes body contact with her. If you don't catch that split second, you can get the impression he is forcing himself on the hen.

Your hen is not receptive to the roosters advances. He is not a good rooster if he can't respect this. A good rooster, like a good human man, will take their cues from the female, and they will not go any further if the hen is not receptive. For a rooster to insist on mating a hen that is not receptive, he is endangering that hen. Your hen is showing every sign of acute stress from your roosters unwanted advances. You must not continue to let him have access to this hen or you risk having what happened to one of my hens happen to your hen.

I had an older hen that did not want my younger rooster anywhere near her, but he completely disregarded her signals. One day he chased her into the coop where he cornered her. She was resisting his advances with everything she had in her. The rooster was intent on overpowering her at all costs, and it ended very badly for this hen.

In the process of him attacking her and her putting up such a struggle, her comb was nearly ripped clean off her head, and the severe scalp injury was just about as bad as you can imagine. Luckily I rescued her before he continued his assault that may have resulted in her death. I did some major first aid on her, managed to graft her comb back on her head and save it. She made a full recovery, but never again did I allow the two of them to be in proximity with each other.

This was not a bad rooster. For some reason his appalling behavior was only with this one hen. He has behaved like a perfect gentleman with every other hen in the flock, never to repeat this awful behavior again in the seven years since that incident.

My advice is to do whatever is necessary to keep your rooster away from this hen. If you do not, you can expect a tragedy at some point.

Fantastic Post.

I agree wholeheartedly. I've learned many things over the years too, some harder than others unfortunately.