Young pullets question

TRALALARA1 said:

I’m curious about something. What has been your experience with young pullets when they are first squatting and allowing themselves to be bred? How long until they lay? I’ve seen one of my 16 weeks old pullets allowing my barred rock rooster breed her. He is sticking to her like glue! He is my one year old rooster who is at the bottom of the older flock. I have seven little cockerels but I’ve not seen one successfully breed any of the pullets or adult hens.
Anyway, my main concern is when to be watching for eggs from the pullets? My adult hens are all pretty good about using the nest boxes but I don’t think any of the pullets have ever checked them out. They free range during the day and stay in a different pen at night.

Click to expand...

Battlepants said:

For eggs, I would check out the combs of the pullets. The redness seems to be connected to their sexual maturity. If you are good with a more direct approach, you could try a butt check: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/

As for getting them to lay in the right area, I like to use the golfball method - 1 golf ball added to each of the nestboxes so they get the idea that this is where eggs go.

I do have a bit of a concern with the roo-hen ratio from the numbers you put out there. You will want 1 roo per around 8 hens. With your current 1 roo and 7 cockerels, this calls for 64 hens. You may want to downsize your roo collection to avoid overbreeding.

Click to expand...