What’s Considered to be too Aggressive Rooster Courtship?

[Melrow1015]

Our 8 month old roo has recently really picked up on courting our hens which I understand is his hormones raging and so far he’s been a pretty good gentleman. He hasn’t whooped up on our hens at all even when rejected (which 9 out of 10 times he is) he just takes it when they retaliate and he does a fair bit of flirting. However yesterday we saw him mount and successfully mate with one of our hens but instead of hopping off he just stood up and stood on her flattening her to the ground, pecked the back of her neck and then mated her again and got off. Is this too much? Where do we draw the line? I noticed she does have a black what I assume is a scab on her comb from a while back that I don’t know what she got from. No one has bare patches or blood spots otherwise. I feel like I keep posting about this lol I just want to know when to act and what to look for. Thank you!

 

[DemeterAD9]

Different roos have different ways of winning over the girls. Some flirt and tid-bit to them while others are much harsher and go more for the dominance route and force them into submission. Sometimes an otherwise very good rooster will give one particularly stubborn hen a hard time because he doesn't like her, or more likely she doesn't like him. But there always seems to be a loner hen or two in a flock who just doesn't like to be with the main group.

Are your hens laying already? Having a cockerel with pullets who are not of age and unwilling to be bred is a recipe for chicken drama. A scratched comb here and there isn't all that worrisome, but if he is constantly chasing the girls, grabbing and forcing them to breed then I'd be thinking about getting rid of him. It can take a few months for cockerels to settle down though so maybe wait till spring and see how he does.

My main man is a blue copper maran. He was pretty good right from the start and the girls seemed to quite like him. He isn't particularly mean but he can be rough with a select few hens. While they were just starting to slow on egg laying and beginning to molt this fall he would single out 2 particular hens and chase them like mad, even standing atop them even when they submitted. Those girls would stay in the coop most the day just to be safe from him. Now that they are through the molt they seem better but the one hen has learned to keep away from him. I plan to replace him next year but mainly to bring in some new blood as by then he would have fathered 2 generations.

 

[McChooky]

My rooster has done this to at least 1 of my hens . I have 2 flocks but only 1 rooster

 

[McChooky]

Our 8 month old roo has recently really picked up on courting our hens which I understand is his hormones raging and so far he’s been a pretty good gentleman. He hasn’t whooped up on our hens at all even when rejected (which 9 out of 10 times he is) he just takes it when they retaliate and he does a fair bit of flirting. However yesterday we saw him mount and successfully mate with one of our hens but instead of hopping off he just stood up and stood on her flattening her to the ground, pecked the back of her neck and then mated her again and got off. Is this too much? Where do we draw the line? I noticed she does have a black what I assume is a scab on her comb from a while back that I don’t know what she got from. No one has bare patches or blood spots otherwise. I feel like I keep posting about this lol I just want to know when to act and what to look for. Thank you!

As long as my rooster isn't drawing blood or hurting any of my hens I don't intervene. I do have 4 hens who refuse to mate him and he chases them sometimes.I keep them in a different coop but they free range during the day when the other flocks loose.Its inevitable that a rooster will force a hen to mate him occasionally if she rejects him

 

[Melrow1015]

Different roos have different ways of winning over the girls. Some flirt and tid-bit to them while others are much harsher and go more for the dominance route and force them into submission. Sometimes an otherwise very good rooster will give one particularly stubborn hen a hard time because he doesn't like her, or more likely she doesn't like him. But there always seems to be a loner hen or two in a flock who just doesn't like to be with the main group.

Are your hens laying already? Having a cockerel with pullets who are not of age and unwilling to be bred is a recipe for chicken drama. A scratched comb here and there isn't all that worrisome, but if he is constantly chasing the girls, grabbing and forcing them to breed then I'd be thinking about getting rid of him. It can take a few months for cockerels to settle down though so maybe wait till spring and see how he does.

My main man is a blue copper maran. He was pretty good right from the start and the girls seemed to quite like him. He isn't particularly mean but he can be rough with a select few hens. While they were just starting to slow on egg laying and beginning to molt this fall he would single out 2 particular hens and chase them like mad, even standing atop them even when they submitted. Those girls would stay in the coop most the day just to be safe from him. Now that they are through the molt they seem better but the one hen has learned to keep away from him. I plan to replace him next year but mainly to bring in some new blood as by then he would have fathered 2 generations.

We have 7 almost 2 year old hens (about a year and 9 months) and 2 7.5 year old pullets. Almost all our older hens are in different stages of molting so I understand the rejection at the moment. There’s a few that he’s pretty relentless with that he tries to mate with frequently, 1 that is currently laying but is slowly molting. The one I was speaking of had a hard molt early this year so her feathers are pretty much fully grown in and shes starting to lay again. She’s not super keen on his advances and isn’t one to back down much either. He’s been part of the flock for about 2 months now and I wonder if he’s still climbing the social ladder. He just now started crowing but I’ve seen a couple of our hens challenge him still. So far I haven’t seen him chase just kinda scratch with them, walk behind them and bump then wait to see if they run, but sometimes he gets a little overexcited and jumps the gun a bit and doesn't wait and just goes for it which usually doesn’t work out well for him. Thanks for the reply!

Edit: I forgot to add, idk if hens have rooster PTSD but the people we bought our older hens from had them locked up in a coop with several roosters for like a week before we got them so idk if that’s adding to the drama

 

[McChooky]

We have 7 almost 2 year old hens (about a year and 9 months) and 2 7.5 year old pullets. Almost all our older hens are in different stages of molting so I understand the rejection at the moment. There’s a few that he’s pretty relentless with that he tries to mate with frequently, 1 that is currently laying but is slowly molting. The one I was speaking of had a hard molt early this year so her feathers are pretty much fully grown in and shes starting to lay again. She’s not super keen on his advances and isn’t one to back down much either. He’s been part of the flock for about 2 months now and I wonder if he’s still climbing the social ladder. He just now started crowing but I’ve seen a couple of our hens challenge him still. Thanks for the reply!

Edit: I forgot to add, idk if hens have rooster PTSD but the people we bought our older hens from had them locked up in a coop with several roosters for like a week before we got them so idk if that’s adding to the drama

My broody hen hatched 5 chicks in late August and 3 were cockerels so I've already given 1 of them away. Today I saw one of the 11 week old cockerels mate his own momma but she didn't get mad at him.They're already mating the other hens and have been crowing since week 4

 

[BigBlueHen53]

My broody hen hatched 5 chicks in late August and 3 were cockerels so I've already given 1 of them away. Today I saw one of the 11 week old cockerels mate his own momma but she didn't get mad at him.They're already mating the other hens and have been crowing since week 4

Mother, sister, aunt, cousin, complete stranger ... it's all the same to them. They don't know and don't care. If it's female, it's a breeding target.

I have two young Ameraucana cockerels (4.5 mo old) that are getting a wonderful education from my one- and two-year old hens, who are not inclined to tolerate any youthful shenanigans from these teenaged upstarts! So far they are not crowing, not flirting, not making nuisances of themselves in any way. I swear if they could talk we'd be hearing , Yes Ma'am, No, Ma'am, Sorry, Ma'am and Excuse me, Ma'am all over the place!

 

[McChooky]

Mother, sister, aunt, cousin, complete stranger ... it's all the same to them. They don't know and don't care. If it's female, it's a breeding target.

I have two young Ameraucana cockerels (4.5 mo old) that are getting a wonderful education from my one- and two-year old hens, who are not inclined to tolerate any youthful shenanigans from these teenaged upstarts! So far they are not crowing, not flirting, not making nuisances of themselves in any way. I swear if they could talk we'd be hearing , Yes Ma'am, No, Ma'am, Sorry, Ma'am and Excuse me, Ma'am all over the place!

I've already given one of them away. He was crowing at 4 wks and mating by 5. He was barely old enough to have all his feathers lol