As I mentioned in yesterdayâs post about the house where Joan Crawford (aka Faye Dunaway) lived in Mommie Dearest, I have become just a wee-bit obsessed with the 1981 film as well as the 1978 autobiography of Joanâs daughter, Christina Crawford, on which it was based.
The rooster's sexual organ is called a papilla, a small bump inside his cloaca from which semen exits. To mate, a rooster climbs onto the back of a hen, standing on the hen's back and using his wings maintain balance, and forcefully touches his cloaca to hers in what's known as a cloacal kiss.
4 to 1 ratio is a bit extreme. The rule of thumb is 10 hens to 1 rooster. Less has worked but if they're all the same age and just maturing, your hens are in for a rough time. Roosters grow bigger and mature faster than pullets so when they grow up together the rooster has a tendency to become an aggressive bully.