Rooster behaviour

There is rape, robbery, and the occasional murder

In the wild

A wild flock is made up of a dominant rooster, and a harem of a dozen or so females. Nearby will be a group of males of different ages (as 50% of eggs that hatch are males). Most of the time these birds get along peaceably.

The subordinate and younger males will live on the fringes of the harem. Among them will be roosters that have never developed and remain infertile; they tend to be accepted as they do not challenge the more dominant roosters.

These roosters are always looking for an opportunity. There will be continual bids to take over the hens. There is rape, robbery, and the occasional murder.

Every day, the dominant rooster will escort a hen to a suitable nesting site, wait until she has laid, then escort her back to the flock. He will also escort the flock as it moves to roost at night. The fringe males use these times to take advantage of the dominant rooster’s distraction to try to mate with ‘his’ hens.

In a large commercial breeding flock

Commercial breeders run several thousand hens in a large shed. Among them will be several hundred males.

However, even in this artificial environment, there will still be hundreds of small harems, presided over by a head rooster. Even though the area is completely open, the hens all know their place and rarely stray away from their group.

Hens will remain faithful to their rooster, even if he becomes infertile, lame or ill and is unable to mate with her. Breeders must be vigilant in spotting inactive roosters and remove them so the hens find a fertile mate.

Part-way through the breeding season for meat-producing birds, a second team of young, fit roosters is brought in. Any nonperforming roosters are removed; older roosters that remain are stimulated to be more enthusiastic by challenges from the younger males.