6 roos and 4 girls? What to do?

[krystallynne]

I know absolutely nothing about chickens. My husband and I discussed getting them and within the week he surprised me with 10 RIR chicks. Now they are getting older and it looks like we have 6 roos and 4 girls. We currently have them in an outdoor brooder. (we live in the desert and my little girl seems to be allergic to them) Am I going to have any problems with them? Do I have to separate them? I have been looking online and I am still clueless. Any help would be appreciated. We have a dog run that we are planning on using for the chickens, but I don't think I have enough space to have 6 roosters lol.

 

[sourland]

The best thing to do would be to re home/sell/get rid of five of the roosters. When they reach sexual maturity the roosters will start gang breeding the hens possibly causing serious injury. With that many roosters and so few hens there will be much fighting to determine dominance.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

The best thing to do would be to re home/sell/get rid of five of the roosters. When they reach sexual maturity the roosters will start gang breeding the hens possibly causing serious injury. With that many roosters and so few hens there will be much fighting to determine dominance.

X2

they will fight, and hurt the hens, and its best to just sell all but 1 rooster (if your fond with him, otherwise you could sell them all) but even 2 roosters and 4 hens can cause problems, 6 will end up in killing dominance battles

 

[krystallynne]

Thank yall. I figured it was trouble. Boo

 

[mstricer]

You can have a couple nice dinners, by putting the boys, away from the girls, in a grow out pen. On a better note you will love the size and color of there eggs, my girl laid one small egg, then boom X large eggs. Great layers.

 

[mstricer]

Oh yeah welcome to BYC

 

[dirtbath]

We always had three roos and 12-15 hens and everyone lived happily. They all got along fine together. Ours were totally free range though during the day. The only time they were all together as one was at night during roosting in the coop. But they all were happy.

 

[krystallynne]

I want to free range them during the day it just all depends on my little girls allergy test and if my doberman plays nice. That is the general plan though.

 

[krystallynne]

You can have a couple nice dinners, by putting the boys, away from the girls, in a grow out pen. On a better note you will love the size and color of there eggs, my girl laid one small egg, then boom X large eggs. Great layers.

Thats what the hubs suggested, we keep one and eat the rest. What is a grow out pen? Will they still fight in it? Ive read that they are great layers! IM excited!

 

[krystallynne]

They are only 21 days old now...I'm starting to wonder if I am jumping the gun on the sex.

6 have combs and 4 do not. I need to snap some photos of them and get some expert advice! I love this site. It makes this so much easier!