Adding roosters to flock

[Lil Jon s mama]

Hello i have an existing flock of six hens 4 & 8yrs old that I'll be adding 8 newbies to. I let my husband and sister in-law talk me into adopting a bantam rooster. Turns out one of my newbie standard EEs is most likely a cockerel. I have the bantam in quarantine still was planning on introducing him to newbies 8/1 and then all together 9/1. Now I think I should regift bantam roo. My husband thinks we should go ahead as planned he insists they will be fine. Any thoughts. This is standard EE red one and bantam EE multi colored.

 

[hensanpitbulls]

Can someone tell me what kind of rooster this is

 

[bobbi-j]

Can someone tell me what kind of rooster this is?

Try posting on the "What Breed or Gender is This?"

 

[Lil Jon s mama]

So I'm going to assume no response means I'm right? 13 hens to 1.5 roosters is a bad idea

 

[lazy gardener]

No such thing as .5 rooster, unless he's in a crock pot, and dinner is over. Now, all joking aside, you will have 2 roosters because that little bantam will be just as busy breeding the pullets/hens every 10 minutes as the cockrel will be. The question you need to answer is this: What are your flock goals? Do you want to hatch chicks? If so, do you want to hatch large fowl chicks that will eventually lay nice sized eggs, or do you want to hatch small birds that will lay pee-wee eggs??? I would definitely get rid of one of them. My roo breeds 24 hens with almost 100% fertility, and you can bet that his favorite girls have bare backs. And he's 2 years old. A younger roo will be breeding even more frequently.

 

[bobbi-j]

So I'm going to assume no response means I'm right? 13 hens to 1.5 roosters is a bad idea

Not necessarily. You are working with living animals. There are no absolutes. They may fight it out, with one possibly being injured. Or, one may be content being the subordinate bird, never challenging the other. What's more important than the "ratio" is the personality of your birds. You could have 20 hens and 2 roosters, creating the "perfect ratio" and still have one rooster that wants to be the alpha over all the hens, resulting in fights. You could have 5 hens and 2 roosters, and have those two roosters get along. You don't know until you try. Typically, though, one rooster is plenty for 13 birds. "The ratio" is kind of a standard that large breeders use for optimum fertility - not to keep the roosters from fighting over hens.

 

[poodlechicks]

IMO if it's your first time having roosters, 2 roosters at once is a bad place to start.

 

[Lil Jon s mama]

Ok thanks I guess I'll try introducing bantam to newbies & see how that goes. I should mention they will be in an enclosed pen only free ranging maybe an hour a day. It's a large pen so there should be plenty of room. Fingers crossed it works I'm already attached to both roos.

 

[Lil Jon s mama]

I used to have a BR standard who was a sweetheart but I knew early on he was a roo so I handled him often. This EE standard doesn't act like a rooster yet and the bantam makes all rooster sounds but doesn't seem aggressive However he is in isolation since I adopted him. I'm not sure how he'll be with other chickens. I'll try putting his kennel in the newbies run see what happens in one week. I hope hubbie is right & I can keep both.

 

[chickens really]

Can someone tell me what kind of rooster this is

A Danish Brown Leghorn Rooster.