Rooster in heat?

[CinnamonQueen12]

I have an ameraucana rooster that keeps pecking on the hen that he is kept with. The hen is not laying eggs at the moment. I can't understand why the rooster would peck at the hen since they were hatched together, and I was wondering about the possiblilty of the roo being in heat. If I put an egg near him, would he try to fertilize it or would he break it?

 

[loanwizard]

In the animal kingdom the female comes into heat, not the male. The male just becomes..... well.... aroused.

Also, the rooster will mount the hen and deposit his fertilization material in her, not the egg directly.

 

[johnsons-r-us]

I wonder if only one hen being housed with one roo is too much for the one hen? I don't have personal experience, but from all I've read the ratio should be much higher for hens to roos.

 

[bantyshanty]

He is probably pecking her to establish his dominance over her. It's part of pecking order. He may well want her to be one of his mates when he's fertile. He will first perfect his crow (before he gets really interested in mating), and then he will have to perfect balancing on top of his mate(s) without falling off. Once he's done that, he can be a rooster who fertilizes the egg cells inside the pullet/hen which gets a calcium coating put around it & becomes a hard-shelled egg, to brood on or to eat. WHen he is getting fertile, he'll start pecking the hens repeatedly on the head and jumping on their backs. theymay run away screeching, or they may spread their wings to the side. If they do the latter, it makes it easier for him to hold onto them, curve his tail-area around while the hen lifts hers, and mate. No, roosters do not have a "thingie" either.

Waaay more info than you asked for. Just my way of further procrastinating from cleaning the growing out pens on a rainy day

 

[Donna barreca]

He is probably pecking her to establish his dominance over her. It's part of pecking order. He may well want her to be one of his mates when he's fertile. He will first perfect his crow (before he gets really interested in mating), and then he will have to perfect balancing on top of his mate(s) without falling off. Once he's done that, he can be a rooster who fertilizes the egg cells inside the pullet/hen which gets a calcium coating put around it & becomes a hard-shelled egg, to brood on or to eat. WHen he is getting fertile, he'll start pecking the hens repeatedly on the head and jumping on their backs. theymay run away screeching, or they may spread their wings to the side. If they do the latter, it makes it easier for him to hold onto them, curve his tail-area around while the hen lifts hers, and mate. No, roosters do not have a "thingie" either.

Waaay more info than you asked for. Just my way of further procrastinating from cleaning the growing out pens on a rainy day

I know this is an old post, but as a new chicken raise this is prob the MOST helpful info I've found so far! I have been questioning every single thing in the answer and wasn't quite sure how to phrase it to google a response. Thank you SO much for clarifying these ambiguous questions!
This is my 1st year & MY rooster was always pretty good, although skittish of us. I have an odd mix: 1st I got 2 duck & 2 hen & 1 turkey who came as chicks, raised together. I guess we got them shortly before easter. Approx 2 weeks later, i added 3 more chicks but kept them in a different tub / pen, as the other 5 were much bigger and did'nt want them to kill the new 3. Soon as able, I united them all and moved them in the outside house/pen. All good. Predator got turkey so we resecured, all good. Friend bought too many young turkeys and gave me 4. (agh!)
So thats how I got the odd lot. OK. 1st 4 hang together all day. The "3 stooges" hang on their own; But all 7 all get along fine. Turkeys mingle but more often 3 hang out together & poor Rudolph is usually left out, alone.
NOW. Discovered that 1 of the 3 stooges is a rooster & crows all day, approx 2-3 times per m Suddenly he has begun running up behind us (people) & pecking or at least attempting. (I stop/turn/glare & DARE, so he backs off of me lol) Saw him attempt to mount 1 of the 1st hens, but DUCK intervened & broke it up. (???) But he is definitely the ruler of the roost. He is doing as described in prior post, chasing hens, attempting to mount but no success. Do roosters mate with different breeds? I assumed yes. Last question is: I house them all together in chicken shed at night. Now noticing turkey poop is like dog poop -ugh such a mess - should I devise new sleeping quarters to separate the hens/rooster/ducks from the turkeys?