Which Man to keep?? HELP and which man to breed with which hen??

[Mixed Pen]

Hi..
So I have been rudely told that i have too many roosters for my hens, (which i do understand his point) however my hens have HEAPS of places to get out of the way, chill out and hide if need be, they are not harassed 24/7 like he is assuming they are, they are all healthy and happy with NO injuries to date, yet now this mans rude comments have me doubting myself, am i being cruel even thought i cant see anything wrong with my flock..

so The reason i have my 4 roosters, is that i wanted a GLW hen, and SLW hen, a PR hen and a LS hen. (i now have a LS hen and a SLW hen) to get a gold hen i want to breed the GLW roo, with the SLW hen, and then i will have my Gold hen. But i also wanted to breed some bigger egg layers, and breed a bird who looks like my PR man, but (i don't have a hen, so will be cross bred)

SO WHAT man/men should i keep to make some great layers, which girl should i cross my PR man with, and who should go.

Roosters.
Plymouth Rock
Gold Laced Wyndotte
Silver Laced Wyndotte
Light sussex.

Hens
Light Sussex
Silver Laced Wyndotte
Rhode Island Red
Grey/Blue Aurracana
??? (mental blank) she is black with 5 toes not 4..

Xbred hens
RIRx??
Aurra x RIR

Also i have had someone ask for SLW eggs in spring, but thats a long way off, so do i keep him until then, or tell her too bad??

OR should i build a separate run for each man away from the girls??

 

[donrae]

I don't know if I missed this, do you only have 7 hens total? and 4 roosters? I agree that's a lot of lovin' for those ladies, but it's not un-doable.

First off, how old are your birds? If they're under say 6 months, the boys haven't really hit maturity and started mating the girls. So, you can't say they're not a problem, just cause the problems haven't started yet

But, if they're mature, the hens are laying decently and the roosters are all being, well, roosters, and everyone's happy, I say why not leave things alone. Chickens aren't a hard and fast thing, more a what works for you thing. I once had 4 roosters and 16ish hens and everyone did just fine. I think free ranging was the key to that harmony, though. Lots of space is crucial!

Options are to build a bachelor pad and house all the roosters there, away from the hens. Roosters seem to do well in that housing, especially if they've been raised together before they hit maturity. No ladies to fight over means just some squabbles, not knock-down-drag-out fighting.

As a variation on the above, you could house 3 of the roosters in a bachelor pad and keep one lucky guy with the hens. You and also build breeding pens to put segregate specific breeds when you want to collect hatching eggs.

 

[Mixed Pen]

Thanks..
one rooster is 18mths, 1 is 6 months and 2 are 5 months.
we have HEAPS of free range space (i.e. it takes me an hour to mow the lawn with a ride on, so the garden space added makes HEAPS AND HEAPS Of room.)

I might make a batch pad, infact my old chook shed (out the back) will do perfect, so i shall move the boys there tomorrow. and maybe just let one out or girls out one day boys out the next so they all get some free range time.

Thanks. and no not 7 hens, (i have doubles of some of the breeds)