Rooster vs Cockerel libido?

[Chubbicthe2nd]

We're having issues with over mating of our hens and are deciding which roosters to eat.

Is it true that roosters are more mating crazy between 6 and 11 months then after 12 months?

We have a 11 month old rooster (maybe 9 months if the lady I bought him from was confused) who is otherwise a great rooster but is very obsessed with mating. We're trying to decide if we get rid of him or wait to see if he chills out as he gets older. Anyone's experience on this? By the way he's a buckeye if that's helpful.

 

[aart]

Multiple males can create a competitive environment.
Get rid of all but one and things may well calm down.

 

[DemeterAD9]

The younger they are the more they will chase after the girls. Generally after 1yr they chill out some but they will still breed the hens several times a day. Now if your roosters are just grabbing the hens and forcing them then I'd be getting rid of those boys. A good rooster will have some manners and dance for the girls to get their consent. I went through 9 boys to get 2 good ones and really only one of them was good from the start, the other had to mature a little before I took him off the hit list. I'm sure as stated above, having multiple only made matters worse as they were competing.

I find that my two 10ish month old boys have definitely learned some manners from when they were only 5 month old hooligans, but on occasion the less dominant one will just nab any nearby hen and breed her when the boss man isn't looking. Some of the hens have learned to run to the dominant roo when the lesser one is chasing them, some stay far away from him in general. But there are a few hens that like him, if only because boss man shoos them away from the feeder to make room for his favorites.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is a hard one for me because there are too many variables. Have you ever met a teenager that acted mature and responsible while some "adults" act more like immature teenagers? I have so it is easy for me to understand that some cockerels mature much faster than others. And some never do. So that is one variable.

When they mature hens often want the potential father of their chicks to be a good father. They want one that will protect the flock, find them food, break up fights, and act like a responsible rooster. Hormonal cockerels have trouble living up to that standard. Pullets often have even more issues. Until they mature, they do not want to be dominated by a crazed cockerel. Once they mature, about when they start to lay, they are more willing to mate, but some still want a mature partner, not an irresponsible teenager. Some hens, like some pullets, are more likely to submit and mate, but many will either avoid them, run away, or fight back. It can get very chaotic when you have cockerels going through puberty. They have to win the respect of the girls before things settle down.

The girls have a part to play in this. Some are much more willing to accept a male as flock master than others. I've had a 5-month-old cockerel peacefully take over a flock that had mature hens in it while one almost a year old had some pretty serious violent fights with the dominant hen before she finally accepted him as flock master. Some of that was the cockerel's personality and maturity, some was how much the girls wanted to be flock master.

When puberty strikes, some cockerels are overwhelmed by the hormones. Some handle this better than others. At this age it is not so much about fertilizing the eggs as about being dominant. The one on top is dominant over the one on the bottom. So it is very common for some (not all) cockerels to go crazy in trying to mate with the pullets and hens. They are trying to establish dominance. It is also common for cockerels to get into fights with each other, trying to establish dominance.

Aart makes a good point about multiple males sometimes increasing competition but it can go further than that. Sometimes they do feed off of each other, either trying to outdo the other or sometimes they cooperate with each other ganging up on a girl. Either can make it worse.

A complicating factor is that often one male will so dominate other males that they do not act "normal". One becomes the flock master and does not allow the others to mate with the girls or perform other flock master duties. This makes it hard to determine what a specific cockerel will do if you remove a dominant cockerel. He may be a perfect gentleman or he may turn raving.

So what do I suggest? What are your goals? What traits do you want the chicks to have that they could inherit from their father? That could be colors and appearance or it could be behaviors. First I eliminate the ones that obviously do not measure up.

I'm not looking at your flock or seeing for myself how they are acting toward each other. My personal preference is for an early maturing cockerel. In my opinion these tend to rely more on force of personality to dominate than just brute force. I don't always get it right but this is my preference.

Then remove all but one. This could be one or a few at a time or all at the same time. You could roll the dice and put all of them in the freezer or sell them or put them in a bachelor pad away from the others while you evaluate the one that is left.

I wish you luck in this. To me, evaluating cockerels is challenging.

 

[Chubbicthe2nd]

Thank you for all the input this is super helpful