Will he get the hang of it?

[Cloverr39]

I have a 6 month old silkie cockerel. I've decided he is my keeper. I'm obviously keeping him for breeding purposes, so the fact he can't figure out how to mount hens is a little concerning. I'm not super worried yet, as he is only 6 months old and I only need to hatch chicks from him in 3-4 months, but I am a little worried about the pullets.

He grabs a pullet's crest in his beak and instead of trying to mount her from behind he squats on the ground in front of her. I imagine this must be pretty stressful for the pullets to have their crest pulled from the front and being unable to get away. They're vaulted, so I'm a bit worried about him possibly hurting them by doing this.

He sees fine. His crest isn't big enough to get in the way of his eyes. He seems to be the lowest in the pecking order out of my 3 roosters.
Do I just have to wait for him to figure it out? How long do you think that would take? I first noticed this about 1 or 1.5 months ago.

 

[Fluffy_Moth_With_Silkies]

I have a 6 month old silkie cockerel. I've decided he is my keeper. I'm obviously keeping him for breeding purposes, so the fact he can't figure out how to mount hens is a little concerning. I'm not super worried yet, as he is only 6 months old and I only need to hatch chicks from him in 3-4 months, but I am a little worried about the pullets.

He grabs a pullet's crest in his beak and instead of trying to mount her from behind he squats on the ground in front of her. I imagine this must be pretty stressful for the pullets to have their crest pulled from the front and being unable to get away. They're vaulted, so I'm a bit worried about him possibly hurting them by doing this.

He sees fine. His crest isn't big enough to get in the way of his eyes. He seems to be the lowest in the pecking order out of my 3 roosters.
Do I just have to wait for him to figure it out? How long do you think that would take? I first noticed this about 1 or 1.5 months ago.

You might have to do something a bit weird...
Whenever you see it you might have to pick him up and set him on top of the hen so he can get the hand of it. I had to do this with my silkie roo.

 

[LaFleche]

Honestly, I would not choose a male for breeding puposes that is unable to perform such a natural and instinct driven act.

To me, heaving a male ontop of the female borders on absurd. If he can't figure it out after a few attempts he would be out.

But that's just me.

 

[Cloverr39]

You might have to do something a bit weird...
Whenever you see it you might have to pick him up and set him on top of the hen so he can get the hand of it. I had to do this with my silkie roo.

I've thought of that and I did try to do that once, but the pullet just ran away. I'll give it a shot again if I see him do it.

Honestly, I would not choose a male for breeding puposes that is unable to perform such a natural and instinct driven act.

To me, heaving a male ontop of the female borders on absurd. If he can't figure it out after a few attempts he would be out.

I understand that. I still have the other two males separated, but one is a bad example of the breed and the other isn't very healthy. They're the best quality boys I could get my hands on though, so not keeping any would mean I'd have to find a male of significantly lower quality than my females, not to mention potentially introducing new faults into my flock.

 

[LaFleche]

understand that. I still have the other two males separated, but one is a bad example of the breed and the other isn't very healthy. They're the best quality boys I could get my hands on though, so not keeping any would mean I'd have to find a male of significantly lower quality than my females, not to mention potentially introducing new faults into my flock.

So the other two won't qualify either, which makes three.
Are they offspring of your own birds?

You could purchase hatching eggs from other breeders and select from the resulting offspring.

This will increase your chance for healthy (instincts) and correct breeding stock in the future.

 

[jBabychickn]

Honestly, I would not choose a male for breeding puposes that is unable to perform such a natural and instinct driven act.

To me, heaving a male ontop of the female borders on absurd. If he can't figure it out after a few attempts he would be out.

But that's just me.

Silkies mature really slow; that’s just their Breed. Nothing wrong with that; they sure shouldn’t be blamed for it.

If you’re not on the same timeframe as his maturity timeline, I don’t see a huge issue in assisting him. I mean, a lot of young cockerels learn from the senior Roo in the flock. Now, if you and your cockerel don’t have a senior Roo and you need him to “get to work” — Why not provide some teaching lessons? He may benefit from them, or he may not. It will ultimately be up to him when he’s ready...

Example — I have a 9mo. old Silkie; he's just now starting to mount the girls, Successfully…
This is after 3mo. of learning from his girls what is acceptable, of practicing his balance, of making mistakes, of growing and maturing.

What I observed with him was:
At around 6-7mo., he started to get hormone surges, which made him ornery, restless, and way too overexcitable. He would dance for his girls, but none of them were at all impressed…yet! His heart was always there for his ladies, but his hormones made him the biggest, most-awkward idiot.

He would attempt mating; He would fail miserably… by falling off, or only grabbing the hens neck but not knowing what the next step was, or he’d fall right off, or he’d attempt to mate completely backwards! — Luckily, His true personality is very Sweet, so these useless and clumsy attempts didn’t happen very often.

Now: He’s so much different at 9mo. compared to 6mo… He’s still trying to win over the girls and trying to find a favorite out of the bunch. He still get turned down a lot. But, he learns more everyday on how to Up his Game…

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But this talk of —
“…if he can’t figure it out after a few attempts he would be out” (a few attempts, seriously?)

It’s a sad feeling knowing that other chicken-keepers out there would feel this way about maturity timelines. Breeding takes a lot of time and patience. Not to mention, immense love for the Breed itself and wanting to keep those Breed-lines going strong…

Perhaps more & more ppl are doing it for the money instead of love for the Breed…?? Like I said, a lot of this is sad to me.

Thanks for listening to me! I’m done..
~ Johnna

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OH! — If you’re REALLY desperate for fertile eggs; you could always YouTube How to get sperm from a Rooster??
It’s very interesting to see how its done, to say the least …