4 roosters, 6 hens...Seperate them? Yes? No? IDK??? lol

[FrankieMcElfresh]

I have 6 hens for sure and 4 roosters, Im not sure on breeds, I know 3 of the 4 Roosters are black bantams I believe (sorry im not the smartest on breeds lol) and one of my brown ones is a rooster too I think, I was planning on leaving the brown rooster with the hens and taking the 3 remaining black roosters and separating them from the others, any tips on what to do? thank youuu.

 

[M.sue]

I'd say yes. Isn't it a ratio of something like 7-10 hens to one Roo. I'm not sure but sounds like you need more gals for all those Roos!! Someone will tell you exactly.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It sounds like a good plan. Many people keep a bachelor pen for extra roosters.

The 1 to 10 ratio for full sized chickens floating around this forum is for fertility only. It has nothing to do with whether roosters will fight and very little to do with whether hens become barebacked. Commercial operations that produce hatching eggs use a ratio of one rooster for every ten hens because they have found that a 1 to 10 ratio works best for fertility. They might have a flock of 200 hens with 20 roosters. For bantams, that ratio is somewhere between 12 to 15 hens per rooster.

Plenty of people keep one rooster with 1 or 2 hens and do not have a problem with barebacked hens. Some people with one rooster and more than 20 hens have problems with several of the hens being barebacked. There are a lot of different factors involved. The number of hens per rooster has a very small part to play in this.

I do recommend you keep as few roosters as you can with your flock and meet your goals. The more roosters you have with your flock, the more likely you are to have problems. That's why I think your plan is a good one.