Can a rooster mate only one hen?

[Girly White Silkie]

I'm glad you are here trying to educate yourself before you get the chicks. There are a lot of adults that are not that clever.

Silkies are notoriously hard to sex until they get older. Are you planning to start with older Silkies or chicks? If you do start with chicks be aware that it may be difficult to know their sex.

Many breeders keep one rooster with one or two hens throughout the breeding season without the over-mating problems people talk about. The secret to this is that they are using mature roosters and hens, not immature cockerels and pullets. When those cockerels and pullets are going through puberty and adolescence it can get really wild and physical. Just like you can get some people that never really mature you can possibly get some cockerels or pullets that never grow up, but usually they do. It's also possible to have a hen or rooster that is just a brute and a bully, that no matter what they are going to disrupt your flock and be a danger to the others. I don't get many of these but when I do I do not allow them to remain with my flock. There are too many good hens and roosters out there to put up with a bad one.

To sum up, you may or may not be OK with one rooster and three hens when they grow up. A lot of that depends on the individual personality of the individual chicken. Extra room helps. Be prepared when they are adolescents for it to get really rough in the coop and run. You may be OK but you may need a separate place to house that cockerel until he grows up.

An obvious question is what ages are we talking about for adolescence? That question does not have an easy answer. Some cockerels can start as early as 12 weeks, some may wait until they are 5 months old to start. I've had some cockerels act pretty mature at 5 months, I've had some that were 11 months before they really hit maturity. For pullets they usually mature a lot when they start laying eggs. I've had some pullets start to lay at 16 weeks, I've had some not start until they were 9 months old.

I assume since you plan to hatch chicks that you will be integrating them with your flock. If you have a broody hen raise the chicks with the flock or raise them separately and integrate later don't believe any magic number as to how much room chickens need based on a square foot per chicken. I do not have a specific size in mind for you but you can follow the link in my signature to see some of the things I'd consider. The important thing is that they have enough room to get away from each other when you are integrating.

This is the hard one, especially if you don't have he experience to base it on, but design as much flexibility into your facilities as you can. A part of this is to provide as much room as you can. You may need to add some things, room to add them is important. I find it is very handy to have a separate place to isolate one or more chickens from the flock. I don't know what your budget for this is or how much room you have to work with.

One last thing this morning. It might be a real good idea for you to just get the three pullets or hens the first year. No male. Get some experience keeping chickens before you start hatching. There is a learning curve to all of this. To just keep hens you do not need as much room. This might keep your initial costs down and help you a lot in deciding how to expand your facilities to get ready for hatching.

Good luck!

Thanks!

 

[Girly White Silkie]

If you mean "...at a time...", then yes. Otherwise, just imagine when they might be called "cocks". Just sayin'. I had one rooster, and a dozen hens, and he wore bald patches off of more than one of them.

Thanks!

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Is there an online version of this?

I don’t know.

 

[Girly White Silkie]

I don’t know.

I should check it

 

[WhiteRockCrazyBird]

I agree about the already made coops, they are made very cheaply, fall apart easily, and don't hold very many birds like they say they do! We took in our nephew's flock, he had 9 first-year hens and a 4 x 6 pre-made coop he bought from a farm store. The doors stick closed, the latches break, the sliding doors fall apart, the roosts warp and bend from the weight of the birds, and the staples used to hold the fencing to the coop fail and leave openings for the birds to squeeze out or predators to squeeze in!!! He said he paid almost $200 for it, on sale...you might look online on craigslist or FB for someone selling a coop that can be relocated easily. Also, we had one rooster to our original 7 hens, and he was wayyy too busy on those girls! Too rough, too frequent, whatever, but our poor girls looked like we had EIGHTY roosters! We rehomed him, and our girls now have feathers and are much happier without him! Another idea you might look at first is buying an incubator and fertile silkie eggs...good for you checking into everything and asking questions before starting your chicken journey!!! Makes things MUCH easier! Best of luck to you!

 

[Girly White Silkie]

I agree about the already made coops, they are made very cheaply, fall apart easily, and don't hold very many birds like they say they do! We took in our nephew's flock, he had 9 first-year hens and a 4 x 6 pre-made coop he bought from a farm store. The doors stick closed, the latches break, the sliding doors fall apart, the roosts warp and bend from the weight of the birds, and the staples used to hold the fencing to the coop fail and leave openings for the birds to squeeze out or predators to squeeze in!!! He said he paid almost $200 for it, on sale...you might look online on craigslist or FB for someone selling a coop that can be relocated easily. Also, we had one rooster to our original 7 hens, and he was wayyy too busy on those girls! Too rough, too frequent, whatever, but our poor girls looked like we had EIGHTY roosters! We rehomed him, and our girls now have feathers and are much happier without him! Another idea you might look at first is buying an incubator and fertile silkie eggs...good for you checking into everything and asking questions before starting your chicken journey!!! Makes things MUCH easier! Best of luck to you!

Yeah!