Dead Cock/Rooster from mating?

[Thechickentrainer1999]

I just found out that cockerels/roosters can die mating, what would cause that and how do you prevent it? I've also read that a rooster can kill a hen mating how?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Both can be true.
Roosters can die from heart attacks. Those can be related to nutrition, disease, heredity and age.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Okay...I'm going to respond simply to follow this thread.

In all my years of chicken keeping I have NEVER heard of a rooster dying from mating. Ever. I can't even imagine how that would be possible.

Now as to the hen, yes she can be injured if mated by an overly aggressive rooster. If badly enough from being bullied and pounced upon, she could have internal or back injuries that would lead to death, or even concussive injury.

But the roo? I'll watch what others say. That sounds like an Old Wives Tale to me...but I may be proved wrong.

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Okay...I get it....too much stimulation brought on the "big one."

But the rooster would have been a cardiac waiting anyway...just happened to come on with mating.

I can see that happening.
LofMc

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I've had hundreds of cockerels and roosters and nearly 100 as primary breeders.
Of all the roosters I've lost other than to predation, 5 were due to heart attacks.
One of those was a seemingly healthy rooster when the door was opened in the morning, he started mating hens like normal while I went to open the next building, 2 minutes later when passing the first pen, he was lying dead as a doornail. The necropsy revealed a heart attack the pathologist attributed to a genetic condition.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I found a young rooster stretched dead as a doornail in the morning pen when he was fine and healthy the night before, and running around mating all day.

I suspected a heart attack, though I did not have necropsy done.

Yeah...that testosterone can get them as well as heart defects.

LofMc

 

[Thechickentrainer1999]

Okay...I'm going to respond simply to follow this thread.

In all my years of chicken keeping I have NEVER heard of a rooster dying from mating. Ever. I can't even imagine how that would be possible.

Now as to the hen, yes she can be injured if mated by an overly aggressive rooster. If badly enough from being bullied and pounced upon, she could have internal or back injuries that would lead to death, or even concussive injury.

But the roo? I'll watch what others say. That sounds like an Old Wives Tale to me...but I may be proved wrong.

LofMc

There's a couple videos on yt you can find of the rooster dying.

 

[Thechickentrainer1999]

Would castration help?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Would castration help?

Not if it is genetic.
Castration creates a Capon which is no longer a fertile rooster and a bird that grows slowly to great size intended for broiling. Depending on breed, they can approach the size of a turkey.
That great size would likely add to susceptibility to heart attack unless butchered in a timely manner.
Caponizing is a much more invasive process than castration is for mammals which is a pretty simple operation.
I've done lots of castrations on piglets and young bulls. I never lost one but I imagine removing testicles from near the avian backbone would be much more invasive and possibly fraught with complications.

 

[Shadrach]

Okay...I get it....too much stimulation brought on the "big one."

But the rooster would have been a cardiac waiting anyway...just happened to come on with mating.

I can see that happening.
LofMc

Not necessarily. Roosters die of a heart attacks fighting.
Chickens hearts are not like mammals. They have a smooth wall four chamber system which permits high blood flow rates. Their hearts respond to stress with a much steeper climb in heart rate than mammals. Their heart beat is already between 200 and 350 beats per minute, depending on size and breed. If you pick up a broody hen at night from an outside nest for example, some care needs to be taken because the stress causes a very fast increase in heartbeat. You can feel the increase with the hand that's cupping her underside. It's the chickens ability to raise it's heartbeat under stress that can kill them despite having a perfectly healthy heart.
Roosters here answering an escort call from a hen might travel 300 metres at panic speed with then immediately mate with the hen.