22 chickens and 5 roosters

[Aunt Angus]

Would there be anything to consider having 18 hens with one rooster? Is that a healthy ratio?

Yes, healthy. I have 15 hens/pullets with 1 rooster. No one gets overmated. This us the best ratio I've had yet, but it depends a lot on the rooster, of course.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Would there be anything to consider having 18 hens with one rooster? Is that a healthy ratio?

Healthy in what respect? Some people keep one rooster with one or two hens and they do great. Some people keep one rooster with 25 or more hens and they do great. Others keep one rooster with anywhere from one to an unlimited number of hens and they have problems. The problems are generally worse if you have an immature cockerel than a mature rooster. The pullets and/or hens can have an effect too. How much room they have and how we manage them can have an effect.

Each flock is unique with its own individual members and its own dynamics. I understand many people on this forum get really hung up about ratios but I don't consider ratio to be an important parameter. OI consider other things to be much more important.

 

[3KillerBs]

The coop is 7x7.

According to the Usual Guidelines,

For each adult, standard-sized hen you need:

• 4 square feet in the coop (.37 square meters)
• 10 square feet in the run (.93 square meters),
• 1 linear foot of roost (.3 meters),
• 1/4 of a nest box,
• And 1 square foot (.09 square meters) of permanent, 24/7/365 ventilation, preferably located over the birds' heads when they're sitting on the roost.

You have about enough space in that coop for a dozen birds (see the article linked in @Ridgerunner's post above for reasons why those are *guidelines* not *rules*).

Having access to an oversized, fully-predator-proofed run at all hours of daylight *can* bend those numbers by acting as an Open Air coop.

One thing that you could do, which occurred to me after talking to you on your other thread is to take the doors off the shed and replace them with 100% hardware cloth. I don't know how difficult that would be to do, but here in the Steamy Southeast we need maximum ventilation.

Would there be anything to consider having 18 hens with one rooster? Is that a healthy ratio?

I'm currently at 1 to 19 without issues and with most eggs I crack being fertile. I had 2 to 21 last winter with some hens losing back feathers and 100% fertility -- but the rooster wear issues were probably at least in part because my Black Langshan rooster was HUGE.

The numbers you'll see most often say 1 to 10, but that's about maximum fertility for hatching eggs and not about behavior or the condition of the hens' feathers.

 

[Mrs. K]

I think you are new to this (might be wrong). IMO roosters take experience. A lot of experience, and a LOT OF ROOSTERS do not turn out, they are either aggressive to humans, or to hens or to both.

Chickens can be such a fun hobby, but their behavior can ruin it. Roosters especially have ruined it for a lot of people. Most of us come to the conclusion that you cannot keep most of them.

So I think that is the ratio that is likely to be the problem. Too many roosters make the chance of it not turning out, skyrocket.

Mrs K

 

[Quarterhorses1]

I think you are new to this (might be wrong). IMO roosters take experience. A lot of experience, and a LOT OF ROOSTERS do not turn out, they are either aggressive to humans, or to hens or to both.

Chickens can be such a fun hobby, but their behavior can ruin it. Roosters especially have ruined it for a lot of people. Most of us come to the conclusion that you cannot keep most of them.

So I think that is the ratio that is likely to be the problem. Too many roosters make the chance of it not turning out, skyrocket.

Mrs K

That happened to me. Two tiny roosters beat each other up and had to be re homed. I now have a 45 point turkey Tom and a 7 pound drake , not sure how that happened , but I’m happier now