Rooster pulling feathers of head

[Noraaaaa]

hello! I have a Wyandot rooster in a coop with three hens. We have never had any problems but just this week I noticed that two of the three hands have a few feathers missing in one spot on their head. I know that he grabs the spot when he is mating them. The hens are show birds, so I don’t want them missing any feathers. How can I stop him from pulling out any more feathers? I know that they will grow back.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Separate him out or it will only get worse.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The head grab is an instinctive part of mating. It tells the hen to raise her tail up out of the way so he can hit the target when mating.

It is instinctive. The only way I know to stop it is to house them separately so they cannot mate.

 

[Noraaaaa]

Separate him out or it will only get worse.

How much worse will it get? I need him to fertilize the eggs. I should be done in about a week with collecting.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

How much worse will it get? I need him to fertilize the eggs. I should be done in about a week with collecting.

It all depends on his technique. He only needs to breed once every couple of days. Some rooster will breed every 10 minutes during the height of the breeding season. It can sometimes be the same poor hen.

Sometimes those feathers grow back and sometimes it takes until the molt. I personally would separate him and put the hen in with him for a quick mating than remove her if you want to preserve her feathers for showing. I don't show so hopefully someone that does can add what they do.

 

[Noraaaaa]

It all depends on his technique. He only needs to breed once every couple of days. Some rooster will breed every 10 minutes during the height of the breeding season. It can sometimes be the same poor hen.

Sometimes those feathers grow back and sometimes it takes until the molt. I personally would separate him and put the hen in with him for a quick mating than remove her if you want to preserve her feathers for showing. I don't show so hopefully someone that does can add what they do.

Okay! I can try and set that up. Thank you!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I need him to fertilize the eggs. I should be done in about a week with collecting.

When chickens mate the hen stores the sperm in a special container near where the egg starts its internal journey. That sperm can stay viable anywhere from 9 days to 3 weeks. Many of us use 2 weeks as pretty normal. So if you are going to stop collecting eggs in a week you can take him out now.

On the other side, a hen is not going to lay a fertile egg the first day of mating. It takes about 25 hours for the egg to make its way through the hens internal egg making factory. That egg can only be fertilized from the stored sperm during the first few minutes of that journey. So if a mating takes place on a Monday, Monday's egg cannot be fertile from that mating. Tuesday's egg might or might not be, depending on timing. I would not count on it. Wednesday's egg should be fertile. This may help you if you decide you want to collect for longer.

Note that this is after a mating. A rooster does not necessarily mate with every hen in the flock every day. He doesn't have to. That's why they have that special container to keep the sperm viable.

 

[Noraaaaa]

When chickens mate the hen stores the sperm in a special container near where the egg starts its internal journey. That sperm can stay viable anywhere from 9 days to 3 weeks. Many of us use 2 weeks as pretty normal. So if you are going to stop collecting eggs in a week you can take him out now.

Okay! Great!

On the other side, a hen is not going to lay a fertile egg the first day of mating. It takes about 25 hours for the egg to make its way through the hens internal egg making factory. That egg can only be fertilized from the stored sperm during the first few minutes of that journey. So if a mating takes place on a Monday, Monday's egg cannot be fertile from that mating. Tuesday's egg might or might not be, depending on timing. I would not count on it. Wednesday's egg should be fertile. This may help you if you decide you want to collect for longer.

Thats great information! I have had them together for 2 months now.

Note that this is after a mating. A rooster does not necessarily mate with every hen in the flock every day. He doesn't have to. That's why they have that special container to keep the sperm viable.

Interesting!

Thank you so much!