I’ll go even more extreme than Fred. I had one cockerel that at 16 weeks was having his way with many of the mature ladies. Not all of them, but many. I’ll admit I was pretty surprised when I saw that. There was even a mature dominant rooster in the flock when that happened. Daddy still occasionally whipped his butt, but the hens liked Junior a lot. I had one that took 11 months to finally get a mature hen to accept his dominance. The other hens accepted him a lot earlier but there was one holdout. That one hen would even knock him of another hen when he mounted just to show that she did not accept him as good enough to be the boss. It really does vary a lot, both with the male and the female.
Some hens will squat for practically anything in spurs, but often a mature hen wants her man to dance for her, find her food, offer protection by keeping a look-out for danger, and keep peace in his flock. It doesn’t hurt for him to have a magnificent appearance and a self-assured self-confident attitude. All that comes with maturity. The females have their part to play too. They all, male and female, mature at different rates. Most immature cockerels won’t do what it takes to impress the older hens.
Sometimes when an immature cockerel tries to get fresh with an older hen, she whips his butt for him. She’s schooling him on proper rooster behavior. Sometimes the hens run away instead of squatting or fighting. Since the cockerel is bigger than them, he may try to force himself onto them. Sometimes a young cockerel growing up in a flock like that can merge pretty seamlessly, but often it gets pretty rowdy for a while. But he will mature his way out of that adolescent stage if you have the patience. It’s not always easy.
