ANOTHER chicken question [Archive]

elemay17

07-09-2009, 05:07 AM

At what age do roosters begin to try and mate? One of our roosters is pecking at the hens. I have seen him peck at the neck a few times, once at the wing and last night he took a huge mouthfull of feathers off of one of the hens tailfeathers. They are all at about 12 weeks old. Out of the 4 he is the only rooster doing it, is he mean or is he just "in the mood" :) Thanks!

Anon001

07-09-2009, 05:46 AM

He's just being a rooster. LOL... A rooster holds to the neck feathers to stay on, if you know what I mean.

momma_to_seven_chi

07-10-2009, 08:06 AM

At what age do roosters begin to try and mate? One of our roosters is pecking at the hens. I have seen him peck at the neck a few times, once at the wing and last night he took a huge mouthfull of feathers off of one of the hens tailfeathers. They are all at about 12 weeks old. Out of the 4 he is the only rooster doing it, is he mean or is he just "in the mood" :) Thanks!

All poultry males do that when they mate. I have even seen the guineas and turkeys bite neck/shoulder feathers. It's fowl foreplay, I guess.