Hello from wales

Hi there, Im Lisa and am fairly new to looking after birds. We bought our first Ducks last year and moved onto hens in the summer of last year. We bought our first two together and named them 'Henny and Penny ' .. soon after we introduced a brown hen that we called Bread, this happened in September. We live in the countryside but our rented bungalow is just off a main road with other houses around us. Why am i telling you this ? ,,, because this week henny and penny started to crow!!! Yup turns out they aren't just BIG chickens but cockerels! As a family we have often asked ourselfes if they are cocks as they were growing pretty big. So now we have a dilema .. do we get more hens or take the cocks back to the farmer which we had them. I will be gutted to get rid of them, they have been with us since they were 4 weeks old and are so friendly. Plus i would hate to give them back and for them to be his sunday roast!
We have a decent size back yard, no grass just the boarders of the garden are where they scrape and roll about in the dirt. They live in the garden shed along with the ducks. We have a pond that we plan to dig out in the spring for the ducks .. and some surrounding space that we could fence off for them all to roam in the day. But we defo don't have space or money for more than 8 birds altogether. So would 4 hens be enough for two cockerels? Regards, Lisa.

Hi, Lisa, welcome to BYC. For sure 4 hens is better than 1. Four hens to 2 roosters is a low ratio, but a lot depends upon the temperament of the roosters. If you note that the hens are being abused/overmated it may become necessary to separate or rehome the roosters.

Hi, thank you for your response. I will defo get onto that then and keep all crossed that the boys play nice

Hi Lisa!
Glad you could join the flock! Adding hens to your exsisting cockerels could cause them to fight and it can become pretty brutal. Especially if you were only adding 4 hens. The usual ratio is 8-10 hens per cockerel. This is so the cocks can't over breed the hens causing them damage. You may find that soon as they mature and get more hormones they begin to fight over Bread. Could you possibly rehome one keep the other and add more hens just to the one cockerel?

By the way love your pic of them and sounds like you have a fantastic place there. Hope you enjoy BYC

Welcome!!!!!

I am so far loving this site, i can see i am gonna get hooked! haha .. already i am learning. I have just been browsing coops and already have some new ideas on how to make the shed into more of a hen/duck house for them all. @ Yorkshire coop. Thanks so much for your advice on my situation. I need to speak to my neighbours tomorrow i think, see if they are okay with the noise. I suppose that way then i will know if i am able to keep one ( no idea how i would choose between them though ) The grey one ( Penny or Kenny as he would prob prefer ) isn't as tame as henny, but once picked up he snuggles into me. Henny is more bold and will feed from my hand and stands next to me when i sit out with them.

It's good i can chat about this on here, i moved out of a big town almost 2 years ago and pets to me there were cats/dogs etc .. only since living in the country have our eyes been opened to birds ( including wild birds ) it really is a beautfiul and satisfying feeling seeing them outside the window. When friends and fam visit they look at me daft when i say ' aren't they gorgeous ' about my birds lol. So i am going to enjoy sharing pictures and chatting about them with you lovely folk who share the enthusiasm. I will keep you posted about what the neighbours say tomorrow. Many thanks again.

Have a wonderful evening

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us.

I would rehome at least one of the roosters. Pick the one that is nicest to you and cares for the hens the most.

Good luck with your flock!

Thank you. They are both good with our hen to be fair, the blue maran does seem more keen to stay closer to her than the sussex roo. But i will see how they go.