Young cockerel

[Farmgirl283420]

My 14 week old rooster seems to be getting to mating age, however nice he is most of the time, he will occasionally target a pullet his same age and pull on her feathers and not let go sometimes causing multiple feathers to be pulled out. Is this cause for concern? It’s been getting more frequent as he matures and today grabbed a hold of her wing instead of her back which concerned me he could hurt her.

 

[fluffycrow]

Hmm, it's probably just his hormones telling him to mount the hens, but him not yet knowing how to do it. Does he usually go for the head and back?

 

[Farmgirl283420]

Hmm, it's probably just his hormones telling him to mount the hens, but him not yet knowing how to do it. Does he usually go for the head and back?

Usually the back

 

[Ridgerunner]

First I'll go through what mating should eventually look like when he and the girls mature, but you are not there yet. They are still immature juveniles, not close to adults, but you might recognize some somewhat similar behaviors.

Mating Between Concenting Adults

1. The rooster dances to show his intentions. He lowers a wing and sort of sidesteps around the hen.

2. The hen squats. This gets her body on the ground so the rooster's weight goes into the ground through her body instead of just her legs. Most roosters of the same breed as the hen are heavier than the hen so the squat is nature's way of protecting her legs and joints.

3. The rooster hops on and grabs the back of her head. This head grab helps line him up right and helps him keep his balance, but the main purpose is to tell her to raise her tail up out of the way so he can hit the target. Without the head grab he would not be able to get to the target so there would be no fertile eggs.

4. The rooster touches her vent with his. That deposits the sperm. This may take a couple of seconds or may be over in a flash.

5. The rooster hops off, his part is done. The hen stands up, fluffs up her feathers, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm in a special container where it can stay viable from a week to maybe three weeks.

It doesn't always go this way between adults. Sometimes the rooster does not dance but just grabs and hops on. No harm no foul, but it shows he does not have the self-confidence he should. Sometimes the hen runs away instead of squatting. The rooster may let her go or he may give chase. If he chases the hen may squat, she just wanted to know he was serious. He may stop the chase pretty quickly and let her go. He may chase her down and force her. As long as she squats and is not injured it's all OK. Even when he forces her it is usually not very violent.

At the age yours are, this is not about fertilizing eggs, the pullets aren't even laying yet. The mating act is about dominance. The one on the bottom is accepting the dominance of the one on top at least temporarily, either willingly or by force. At that age it is almost never willingly. The girls do not want to be dominated and his hormones are running wild telling him to dominate so he resorts to force. Even if the girls were older and more willing to accept him as a dominant chicken he is not betraying the types of behavior they would accept in a flock master, he is an immature twerp. Puberty can be a very rough time to watch. Usually when they mature and they accept their rolls in the flock this gets pretty peaceful, but as someone on here once said, watching juveniles go through puberty is often not for the faint of heart.

The girls losing a few feathers isn't a big deal. But if they lose enough that bare spots are showing up that changes, they could be cut by his beak or claws when he mounts them. Usually these bare spots are at the small of the back where his feet rest or the back of her head where he grabs on. This usually looks a lot worse than it is. It usually bothers the human more than it does the pullets, but bare spots can be a concern.

I've never had a pullet injured at this stage, but others have. It is violent, injury is always a threat. It is disruptive, sometimes the girls hide to keep away from a cockerel. Do you feel a need to have a rooster? If you do not there is a very easy solution. But if you want him, you can either let things go and monitor for injury or lock him up for a month or two to give him and the girls a chance to mature. I've had cockerels mature enough to win the girls over as young as 5 months, though that is fairly rare. Most of mine take closer to seven months.