Enough room?

jaybyrdsfarm

Songster
Apr 25, 2021
90
194
106
Apex NC
So chicken math struck. I currently have 1 confirmed rooster and 11 other chickens, one may be a rooster, waiting on that. I am currently enlarging the run from 10 x 10 to 10 x 20. They get out in the backyard every night when I'm home from work.

My concern is that if I have 2 roosters, they would only have 5 hens a piece which may be too few hens.

Would I have enough room for more hens to even out the numbers?

The final run will be 10 x 20, half is covered in a solid roof, the other half will be covered in hardware cloth but no solid roof.

The coop is 6 feet wide by 7 feet long and has a slanted roof. Highest part of the roof is 7 or 8 feet, shortest is 4 and a half.

They have 3 roost bars in the coop and 5 nesting boxes that are currently blocked off because no one is laying yet

Youngest chick is 6 weeks, oldest is 15 weeks.

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Inside of coop. They have water inside because it is so damned hot right now.

The extension of the coop is below which should be done whenever my hardware cloth gets here. The wall frames are built just not up yet.
FB_IMG_1627156068538.jpg


Thanks in advance!

Jaybyrd
 
Inside of coop. They have water inside because it is so damned hot right now.

I have both water and commercial feed in the coop 24/7. I planned it that way because in the winter months, for about 5 months of the year, my chickens will not go outside on the snow. In the summertime, I have an additional open water dish in the chicken run.

The coop is 6 feet wide by 7 feet long

Probably at the max number of birds already if you go by the 4 square feet per bird ratio for the coop. I have almost 8 square feet per bird in my coop because of the long winters and the chickens do not go outside. I think the extra room helps them stay more civil towards one another in the winter.

I tend to think the bigger the run, the better. But fencing is not free, and hardware cloth is very expensive. Most people are recommending 10 square feet of run space per bird. Sounds like you let them out in the evening to free range, so maybe you don't need a big run. I don't let my chickens free range, so this year I expanded the run to give them more room. They seem to like the extra space.
 
My experience with roosters is limited, but it's generally acknowledged that roosters rarely get along well enough to share the hens without physical separation -- it's called cockfighting for a reason.

Some say that a rooster doesn't need any more space than a hen does but I'm skeptical on that because they are physically larger, even up to twice the size, and much more territorial.
 
My experience with 7 Barred Rock pullets raised in a 10'x 10' kennel. 14 square feet per chicken.
At 3.5 months old, they were crowded.
20181201_095625.jpg

I doubled the kennel, so they now had 28 square feet per chicken.
20190426_095413.jpg

Much happier chickens.
I currently have 8 eleven weeks old pullets in that pen.
20210721_095710_resized.jpg

25 square feet per chicken. I would not add more chickens to that space even if my coop could accommodate.
I only let my chickens free range an hour before sunset daily, weather permitting. So my chickens spend most of the time in kennel and coop.

I don't have any Cockerels/Roosters, but my guess is 2 Cockerels in your expanded kennel (16.5 square feet per chicken) won't get along. GC
 
No, you don't have room for 2 roosters. I know you want to keep them both, but if you find a way, you should get rid of both of them.
  • Roosters do not get the concept of sharing, as in these are your hens, and these are mine, they want them all, and will fight to get them
  • You are in love with them now, because they are the darlings, friendly, brave and outgoing
  • They mature sooner than the pullets, are bigger than the pullets, and will relentlessly chase and harass the pullets, sometimes they can kill one
  • free ranging for a couple of hours does not make up for not enough space, especially in the long nights of winter, where as the birds will be rooster for 14 hours a day, and generally it is dark when you get home from work.
  • Personally, I would keep 2 roosters with 25-35 hens.
  • It is not impossible for 2 roosters in an established flock to live together. People that have multiple roosters tend to have a farm set up, verses a backyard set up, and because of that have a great deal of space.
  • Roosters that are in a father/son relationship tend to work it out, but brother/brother roosters seldom do
  • the more roosters you have, the greater the chance of it going wrong
  • if you have small children, I strongly recommend no roosters as they will tend to attack children first
  • Inexperienced people vastly underestimate the violence of roosters
    • to other pullets
    • to other roosters
    • to people
I know you want to keep them, they are darling, and you raised them, and you are attached to them. But multiple roosters in a backyard coop can ruin the whole chicken experience.

Mrs K
 
No, you don't have room for 2 roosters. I know you want to keep them both, but if you find a way, you should get rid of both of them.
  • Roosters do not get the concept of sharing, as in these are your hens, and these are mine, they want them all, and will fight to get them
  • You are in love with them now, because they are the darlings, friendly, brave and outgoing
  • They mature sooner than the pullets, are bigger than the pullets, and will relentlessly chase and harass the pullets, sometimes they can kill one
  • free ranging for a couple of hours does not make up for not enough space, especially in the long nights of winter, where as the birds will be rooster for 14 hours a day, and generally it is dark when you get home from work.
  • Personally, I would keep 2 roosters with 25-35 hens.
  • It is not impossible for 2 roosters in an established flock to live together. People that have multiple roosters tend to have a farm set up, verses a backyard set up, and because of that have a great deal of space.
  • Roosters that are in a father/son relationship tend to work it out, but brother/brother roosters seldom do
  • the more roosters you have, the greater the chance of it going wrong
  • if you have small children, I strongly recommend no roosters as they will tend to attack children first
  • Inexperienced people vastly underestimate the violence of roosters
    • to other pullets
    • to other roosters
    • to people
I know you want to keep them, they are darling, and you raised them, and you are attached to them. But multiple roosters in a backyard coop can ruin the whole chicken experience.

Mrs K
Thank you for all the advice!

I pulled feathers and DNA sexed my other rooster suspect and she is a hen! So now I have 1 rooster and 11 hens ( no other rooster suspects at this time ).

The run is almost done and will be 10 x 20 ( well close enough i can't build anything square ).

I'm planning on keeping Roosterita unless he becomes a problem. I do have a friend that can take him ( she has more then enough room, everyone free ranges all day and has more hens then she can count ). So far he likes to jump on me and take treats from my hands but I know it could change with maturity. As he grows he is also keeping the girls in line! But if his chicken butt harms my girls, he's going to my friend!

No children of the human kind here. Just chickens, dogs, cats, horses and turtles.

And my set up is on a 5 acre farm, the chickens have about an acre for themselves when they are out. Once everyone is bigger I plan on leaving them out more during the day especially during the winter so they have time out!

Again thank you so much for the advice!

Jaybyrd
 

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