Rooster breeding young hens?

[rsarns]

Of my 19 hens, only one has just started laying. 14 were hatched around April 20th or so (I bought them on the 24th). My rooster from the same batch I bought (Cuckoo Marans) today started "breeding" a couple of the non-laying hens. Is this normal for a rooster to try to breed non-laying hens, they sqautted for him also! Hopefully this means a few more are getting close to laying.

 

[so lucky]

I don't have much experience at this, but in observing my own small flock, I see the following: My roo was trying to mate all the pullets, making life miserable for the smaller less mature ones, same age but scrawny. I put Buck in chicken jail for a week. When he got out on parole, he quit bothering the younger ones. The girls he messes with now are all showing signs of maturity/point-of-lay, such as reddened face, larger comb, friendlier to me. Rather than him "learning a lesson" by being incarcerated, I think he just matured a little, and now "knows" who to approach and who to leave alone. It's a much more peaceful flock now than 3 weeks ago, let me tell you! Of course, things could change at any time, and probably will now that I've jinxed it by talking about it.

 

[m_shuman]

My roos were causing chaos by trying to breed my hens that just weren't ready. I took both of them out of the run and free ranged them in the yard for about 2 weeks. This cooled them down enough that the roo I let back in with the hens decided to play nice. I still keep th other in the yard.

 

[Mother_Hen2011]

In my little time with my hens and roo I have that he doesnt mount any of them(I have 3 Andalusian Roos and 3 Easter Egger Hens 2 roos are in chicken prison for attacking not only the hens but my daughter and my husband and I.) The roo I have in with my hens is a gentlemen because none of my hens have matured yet! They are almost 5 months old. Only one of my hens has even started to show signs of maturing her comb and the red around her face has started to turn bright red and shes started to sit in my lap(which she has never done before) So..lol Im still really new to this as well. My roo his name is Pleklie he hasnt tried to mount any of them and has just started to cockadoodoldo so lol

 

[rsarns]

The ones he is mounting are all showing that they are about to lay... just have not yet. The one which started laying yesterday, I have never seen him chase. My roo is still young, and he is very good with the kids and me.