Sebright rooster's favourite hen

[Tahlia95]

I have five sebright bantams. One rooster and four hens. I opened the coop door tonight to check on them and noticed this huge patch of bare skin on one hen's back. I thought this must be from the rooster. I had five of their eggs in the incubator and on candling I found that only two were fertile. Weird seeing as though he doesn't have many hens to mate and should be getting the job done. Is it possible that he's only mating with one hen? I know there are saddles you can buy to protect them but I'd also like to solve the fertility problem. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Pork Pie]

Are they all the same age? Did you buy them at the same time? How old is the cockerel / rooster?

It can take some time before a cockerel / rooster is established in the flock and considered worthy of breeding rights. If he is relatively young, it could well be that the more dominant hens will not allow him to mate with them, thus he focuses his attention on the lower ranking hens - hence the feather damage due to over-mating with the less dominant hens (and infertile eggs).

 

[Tahlia95]

I'm not sure. I think the rooster should be old enough and have been in with the hens long enough to have established dominance though. We have had the hens for nearly 3 months and got the rooster a little later but from the same place. I have seen him chasing them all around pretty frequently and I don't think he would be able to do this if he wasn't dominant. I have only ever seen him mate with one hen though. I have wondered if maybe the other hens are too fast for him and the favourite might just submit and not bother running away much so he just settles for her.