Rooster mating at 2 or 3 months old

[Wyatt_payne9]

I have a young rooster (I think 2 or 3 months old) and he seems to be mating with the older hens, I thought they started that at a later age, unless he’s just mimicking the older rooster (which got killed by a fox unfortunately, he did put up a fight and the hens were all safe though), the hen even stood up and shook off after finishing

 

[DatCampG]

Starting at about 4 to 5 months of age, young roosters, well...boys will be boys.

 

[NatJ]

I have a young rooster (I think 2 or 3 months old) and he seems to be mating with the older hens, I thought they started that at a later age, unless he’s just mimicking the older rooster (which got killed by a fox unfortunately, he did put up a fight and the hens were all safe though), the hen even stood up and shook off after finishing

I've read of a 7 week cockerel that was mating successfully (proof: an egg that hatched, with no access to other roosters. I'm pretty sure there's an old thread about it somewhere on this forum.)

So there is definitely a chance that yours is mating. Many cockerels wait until they are older, but some do start pretty young.

 

[NatJ]

I've read of a 7 week cockerel that was mating successfully (proof: an egg that hatched, with no access to other roosters. I'm pretty sure there's an old thread about it somewhere on this forum.)

I went looking for that thread, and this is probably the one I was thinking of. I was a little bit off on the age, because he was 9 weeks, not 7 weeks:

I have a Black Minorka who started at 9 weeks and was most definitly potent at that age (about 50% with first hatch)
Another thing is generally the lighter the breed the faster they will mature,, I have read cases (documented,, not just word of mouth on a forum) where Egyptian Fayoumis can start breeding in as little as 6 weeks,, larger breeds tend to start closer to 16-20 and cochins,, well those bad boys take their sweet time

And here's one that was fertile at 13 weeks:

Following up my previous post about my 13 week old Barred Rock mating with my laying hen. He was fertile...I have a 1 week old baby chick out of their mating. I collected five of my hens eggs that week and cracked four of them finding the fertile Bullseye in all of them. Then I put the fifth one in the incubator and now have a baby chick.

So the answer to the question about what age the cockerel can be fertile...in my case, 13 weeks!

BTW, I have no other roosters and I know the cockerels exact hatch date so there is not age discrepancy. I have two more of their eggs in the incubator now, due to hatch on 8/21. They made such a cute baby I had to hatch some more.