Roosters swapping coops?

[Sinadrea]

Another paper on the ability of females to decide whether to use a male's sperm (this paper covers many different species, although a lot deals with chickens):
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5511330/

Thank you, that one explained how they can reject it. I was wondering about the mechanisms of it.

 

[Sinadrea]

Another paper on the ability of females to decide whether to use a male's sperm (this paper covers many different species, although a lot deals with chickens):
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5511330/

This is an article i will have to reread a few times

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Thank you, that one explained how they can reject it. I was wondering about the mechanisms of it.

I'm taking an avian ecology class this semester, and at some point we do a presentation on something bird-related. I thought very hard about doing this topic, because I think it's fascinating, but at age 71, I still don't think I could behave myself professionally for the entire thing. Too many good jokes in there, and I've already startled my young classmates enough!

 

[Sinadrea]

I'm taking an avian ecology class this semester, and at some point we do a presentation on something bird-related. I thought very hard about doing this topic, because I think it's fascinating, but at age 71, I still don't think I could behave myself professionally for the entire thing. Too many good jokes in there, and I've already startled my young classmates enough!

At 71, you don't need to behave anymore and it is an interesting topic, I didn't know about it.

 

[Perris]

this morning I happened to get a photo of sperm ejection which might be of interest to @Sinadrea and @Mother of Chaos at least

I can't remember who'd mated her (I did witness it) but he was a bit rough. This is her reaction to it.

 

[Sinadrea]

this morning I happened to get a photo of sperm ejection which might be of interest to @Sinadrea and @Mother of Chaos at least
View attachment 4304053
I can't remember who'd mated her (I did witness it) but he was a bit rough. This is her reaction to it.

Thank you, I've never noticed that on my hens, it's good she has a choice to eject it if he wasn't a gentleman. Very interesting!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I mentioned up-thread that I would have to be doing a brief (7-minute) presentation for my Avian Ecology class this spring, and my initial topic got vetoed. So now I'm doing it on the ability of females to select or reject a given's male's sperm post-mating via various methods ("cryptic female choice" or CFC.)

@Perris, I'm using your photo above of your hen nope-ing post-mating, if that's ok. If anyone else has any tales of this happening plus guesses as to why (rough mating, male's low status, etc.) I'd love to include them. All I have time to cover are the How? (sperm ejection, sperm storing for later use) and Why? of CFC in birds. There's guessing by PhD's, and there's anecdata from chicken-keepers, and frankly, there's not a lot of difference between the two.

I have to submit my slide deck Monday morning - no pressure! - so I'd be happy to read any of your experiences. Adding a quick cross-post in Shadrach's thread.

Thanks!

 

[C Siena]

I have 4 coops and 11 roos; it happens a lot here. In this photo of the flock sheltering from a storm in one of their favourite hangouts, you can see 3 of the coops and the ramp of the 4th on the right. You can also see at least 9 of the roos and at least as many hens; a lot of what's said about having multiple roos in a flock is simply false in my experience, which revolves around raising roos within the flock so they all think they are related (even if genetically they are not, because I acquired some of them as hatching eggs). Apart from them all standing close together, calmly and peacefully, you may want to note the absence of injuries to hens or roos. View attachment 4287993

I don't know why either. I don't spend any time worrying about it. They choose their roosting partners and they know much better than I do why they want to roost where they do. Who am I to interfere?

In an open environment where they can make their own decisions, hens choose which roos' sperm to keep (so even if forced to mate with them, they may reject them as sires as of their offspring). And all of them are promiscuous; hens mate with multiple roos just as roos mate with whatever hens they can.

You're welcome.

Though I am 2.5 months late to this, we have 2 coops: 28 hens, 3 roos (one is just 1 yr). They free range all day except for maybe 5-7 days in the winter. There are 2 males in the larger coop, both lower in the hierarchy. The senior roo will only go after one if he tries to mount one of the favs, or get too close to the favs.

Yesterday the youngest mounted a hen 3' away from the senior/dominate roo. No problem, no crowing, no charging, it wasn't one of his preferred hens. I watched them a bit more early on as I was unsure of having 2 males in one coop (8' x 8' x 9'). The #2 roo will sometimes mount one of the dominate roo's hens but as not one of the favs, he allows it without conflict.

We have 20 acres but they forage on about 2-3 and have woods as well.