TOTAL Embarrassment and have a (probably dumb ? too)

[MysteryChik]

Feelin' really dumb. That moment, when you are new to the farm or should I say.. chicken life. And ya put your older hen in with your new hens and rooster... and you FREAK out bc you think you're rooster is trying to kill your hen.. So you separate them. Then a couple days later, realize they weren't fighting.. It was "mating".. My Rooster (barred plymouth) and three new BR hens are about four months old. My other chicks that I had are about fourteen weeks. My rooster, obviously had no problem mating with my older hen. But will he try to mate with the younger ones if put together too, or does he know better? We haven't seen him try anything with the BR hens his same age.. just curious.. out of the ten "younger chicks" we have. there are 8 females and 2 males

 

[Poultry parent]

he might is they are about the same size as him

 

[MysteryChik]

just really strange that he isn't mating with the barred rocks his age and size. our younger hens, (game fowl) are ALOT smaller than him

 

[Poultry parent]

my roo didn't try to mate with any of our hens till e was established. (we got him a month after the hens)

 

[aart]

Hey, ya don't know until you know.....and if you don't know, it's always good to ask!

Most the time a young cockerel(not a cockbird / rooster until one year of age) will try to mate any bird it can.
It's a good sign that he's only mating the older hen(how old?)...pullets are females less than a year old, hens are older than a year.
Cockerels mature younger(a month or two) than pullets and can wreck havoc on the pullets before they are ready.
A good mature cockbird will only mate a bird that is sexually mature and laying.

 

[Poultry parent]

our roo only just started to mate with the hens (they have just turned about a year old) i think it's odd how he only mated the hen that was 2 until the others were a year old

 

[lazy gardener]

Feelin' really dumb. That moment, when you are new to the farm or should I say.. chicken life. And ya put your older hen in with your new hens and rooster... and you FREAK out bc you think you're rooster is trying to kill your hen.. So you separate them. Then a couple days later, realize they weren't fighting.. It was "mating".. My Rooster (barred plymouth) and three new BR hens are about four months old. My other chicks that I had are about fourteen weeks. My rooster, obviously had no problem mating with my older hen. But will he try to mate with the younger ones if put together too, or does he know better? We haven't seen him try anything with the BR hens his same age.. just curious.. out of the ten "younger chicks" we have. there are 8 females and 2 males

Your cockrel started on the older hen, b/c he's well aware that she is the only one capable of procreating at this time. (If I read your post correctly)

Hey, ya don't know until you know.....and if you don't know, it's always good to ask!

Most the time a young cockerel(not a cockbird / rooster until one year of age) will try to mate any bird it can.
It's a good sign that he's only mating the older hen(how old?)...pullets are females less than a year old, hens are older than a year.
Cockerels mature younger(a month or two) than pullets and can wreck havoc on the pullets before they are ready.
A good mature cockbird will only mate a bird that is sexually mature and laying.

I agree with Aart. Unfortunately, that 16 week old cockrel has way more hormones than he does manners. Hopefully, your older hen will give him some schooling re: the proper way to woo the ladies. (ie: thrash his butt if he steps out of line) A young male can be brutal with his same age pullets. And if there are more than one cockrel, they will gang up on the weakest pullet in the group. A timely reminder that I need to get my pullets in with the hens, and leave the boys in the smaller coop. I've seen a cockrel trying to breed a coffee can before. They are hormone driven and often incapable of rational thought.

 

[MysteryChik]

Hey, ya don't know until you know.....and if you don't know, it's always good to ask!

Most the time a young cockerel(not a cockbird / rooster until one year of age) will try to mate any bird it can.
It's a good sign that he's only mating the older hen(how old?)...pullets are females less than a year old, hens are older than a year.
Cockerels mature younger(a month or two) than pullets and can wreck havoc on the pullets before they are ready.
A good mature cockbird will only mate a bird that is sexually mature and laying.

Im not real sure how old the older hen is. We got her the beginning of April, and she brought along Eleven baby chicks with her. We were given them, and all we knew was that her name was "granny". So I guess we assumed she was pretty darn old.. But I don't think she's too old bc we are getting like five eggs a week from her, and from what I have heard.. that's pretty good for game fowl.

 

[MysteryChik]

Your cockrel started on the older hen, b/c he's well aware that she is the only one capable of procreating at this time. (If I read your post correctly)

I agree with Aart. Unfortunately, that 16 week old cockrel has way more hormones than he does manners. Hopefully, your older hen will give him some schooling re: the proper way to woo the ladies. (ie: thrash his butt if he steps out of line) A young male can be brutal with his same age pullets. And if there are more than one cockrel, they will gang up on the weakest pullet in the group. A timely reminder that I need to get my pullets in with the hens, and leave the boys in the smaller coop. I've seen a cockrel trying to breed a coffee can before. They are hormone driven and often incapable of rational thought.

wow.. a coffee can, now that's a new (strange) one! Right now.. we have two coops. One has the four Barred Rocks (one rooster and three hens) and the other has granny and the ten chicks she came with. Its better that way I think. she gets along pretty well with all the chicks (as far as I can tell there are two cockrels and 8 pullets.) both "coops" are open air and they are each 15' x 17'. but they are side by side. My husband has been observing each day the interaction between the barred rock cockeral, and our one adult hen, and was convinced they wanted to mate by their actions and the noises they were making at eachother. So we put her in the coop with them just for a bit yesterday and today and sure enough she layed down and he jumped right on her. but we def aren't leaving them together bc i know from reading he could and would probably try mating with her all day long and I know that wouldn't be good for her. our BR are free ranging during the day but our hen and babies are on punishment right now.. bc they decided to stop coming in the roost at night, and started roosting in the apple trees for a couple weeks. So we finally caught them and are trying to reshow them where "home" is.

 

[MysteryChik]

researching i've gotten several different ages as to when a hen will/can start laying. Does it change for each breed?? I've saw 4, 5, and 6 months for the plymouths.. and well as far as the 'game fowl'.. they are like mixed breed or something.. so I really don't even know what to search to try to see when they should start.