When is a rooster sexually mature?

[Yard full o' rocks]

I am very close to having to replace my Buff orp roo. He has gottem WAY TOO aggressive. He now comes at me and my sons, even thru the fence. I have an opportunity to get a 10 week old, hand raised roo whose father has a very docile, tame temperment. My boys are enjoying raising baby chicks and selling them at the local livestock auction....I dont want to hinder their excitement and enthusiasm to do a little work. If I replaced this rooster, how long til this young rooster is mature enough to mate successfully? THANKS

 

[sonew123]

Im in the same exact boat--My Bo roo was teh sweetest-until he became sexually mature! now he flogs me at every chance he can get-he's not even a year old yet. We would hold him-carry him around but now-puh..I can't go near the pen without a huge rake to stop him from wanting to kill me. I have 1 roo that is his son -hathces 5 weeks ago and he is be the replacement. That wil give my 3 girls a break for a few months? I hope someone answers-thanks for asking the question!

 

[Nemo]

A quick Google search says 5-6 months.

Hens will still be able to lay fertilized eggs for up to a month after the removal of the rooster.

 

[speckledhen]

Between 16 and 18 weeks, usually. That's when I start seeing fertile eggs with young roosters.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Quote:
Thank you very much. Any suggestions on how to handle, train, tame a roo so I dont have this same issue again? He was soo nice....now he's just awful.

 

[speckledhen]

Sometimes you can't change them, sadly. You can try humiliatiion and domination (check out rooster-red's BYC page), but I have had both situations. The one that turned out well stopped bad behaviour very very young (8 weeks). I've had two roosters become aggressive, but they were rather young, too, around 20-something weeks. They are no longer with us.

 

[Bluebells]

We had two fighting cockerels at age 16 weeks--bleeding neck on one, awful. They had gotten along until then though had frequent staring matches. Once the bleeding one had recovered, i.e. the next morning, we stopped their fighting by placing the one who started it into the penalty box (small run by himself, size two sq meters) for a few hours. When letting him out we watched again, and again the aggressor went to the box. Who started would change so each had had his turns. This went on for two days, and then it was over. No more fights. They avoided one another for a day or two, but then were back to being buddies.

These are Orpingtons. From an Orpington expert, I learned that Orpington cockerels establish a hierarchy among themselves and no longer fight. Also, they will not fight to the death. There was another breed, I wish I could remember which one, whose cockerels do not fight. So I don't know how this would work on other breeds, or even other Orpingtons. I don't have much experience with cockerels.

Is your cockerel attacking your children? I think, I might try the penalty box if you can be very watchful and quick about it.

We had done the penalty box thing with an aggressive hen who kept bullying one of our other hens. She learned so quickly that after two penalties, she ran to and pecked the little hen, and then immediately turned and ran straight to the penalty box without our having a chance to go after her. Needless to say, this penalty did not seem to work on her. Incidentally, while standing in the penalty box, she would noisily complain and wail away most pitifully. If that happens you need to devise something that will get the message across to your cockerel. They can learn but they do have a strong will of their own.

Another thought: you might want to observe the conditions immediately preceding the bad behaviour to get a better insight. Just realized this is a very old blog, but just in case of interest to any other readers...

 

[CalBickieMomma]

I am very close to having to replace my Buff orp roo. He has gottem WAY TOO aggressive. He now comes at me and my sons, even thru the fence. I have an opportunity to get a 10 week old, hand raised roo whose father has a very docile, tame temperment. My boys are enjoying raising baby chicks and selling them at the local livestock auction....I dont want to hinder their excitement and enthusiasm to do a little work. If I replaced this rooster, how long til this young rooster is mature enough to mate successfully? THANKS

That’s too bad! I have a little Buff Orpington cockerel (not that little, actually. I call him my lap pancake or bean bag muffin because he just sits in my lap and spreads out ). Gerard is only 12 weeks old (this Thursday) and he’s starting to act more roostery (running at the others and stopping with neck feathers slightly fluffed and he even mounted my Guinea fowl the other day ...).

I’m a strong believer in the idea that roosters will be good if you give them lots of attention from day one and then IF, around sexual maturity time, they start showing aggression towards you, give it right back right away (pick them up or move aggressively towards them if they’re coming at you). This worked on my RIR roo, but I’m hoping Gerard (my Buff Orpington) won’t get feisty at all. They’re supposed to be the docile breed!