Rooster Mated Backwards With Hen?!

[ClareScifi]

Baby, my 19-week-old rooster, did something odd today. He mated with Saffie, my same-aged hen, backwards, biting her tail instead of her neck. Has anyone ever seen this rooster behavior, and if so, what could it mean? She didn't seem to mind. She just picked herself up and dusted herself off and went about her business. Baby loves Saff. She's his favorite hen. Do you suppose he was just playing with her??? She laid her first egg today.

Clare

 

[satay]

I think you will find he is just learning and has not got his direction right yet. .

 

[ClareScifi]

P.S. I should add that Baby, the rooster, straddled the hen, but instead of facing her head, he faced her tail, and then bit her tail the way he would normally bite her neck. It looked very strange to me?

 

[ClareScifi]

Thanks, Satay, but he has mated with her the correct way many times in the past.

The other day he mated with her correctly, and then the StepMama hen got mad and jumped atop him, and the chickens were stacked 3-high! Very weird behavior, in my opinion?

 

[theoldchick]

At that age he's figuring out how things work. When Stan first tried to mate he simply walked on them, over them, and went on like that was the normal way to mate. Then he'd crow like he was the best thing since fresh greens. No wonder my hens ignore him.

Now when my other rooster first tried to mate, he'd grab the gal by the head and drag the poor thing around. I watched him for two weeks to see if things improved. He didn't so he was rehomed to someone's freezer camp.

 

[ClareScifi]

Thanks, old chick. At least this rooster is fairly gentle with the girls. He was raised in the house, and I didn't think the hens would ever accept him. His StepMama nearly pecked him to death when he was first hatched, so I had to rescue him. He keeps his distance from her. She won't let him mate with her, ever, of that I am certain. But his two same-age sisters don't seem to mind him. I have seen him try to mate with towels. Early on he tried to mate with my hand, until I nipped that in the bud. I was so afraid I would become his hen, but the real hens seem to like him, except his StepMama isn't crazy about him, but at least she now tolerates him, for the most part, although it was interesting how she attacked him the other day when he tried to mate with Saffie. He had always done so out of the StepMama's sight in the past, but that day, she was right there, and she did not approve. LOL. She didn't hurt him badly, just pecked him a little bit, while he was in the act... But it didn't really seem to faze him.