If you keep another cockerel & pullet, what will be your overall ratio? I know you tend to have a higher cockerel to pullet ratio due to the free ranging with no pens for safety......but you are already keeping one cockerel, correct, as a replacement.
It would put me at 36 birds, 5 of which roos. Ratio would work out to about 6 hens/1 roo long term.
How many generations of just your chicks do you have (weren't your initial starter flock from your mother-in-law?). I'm asking for genetic diversity - can you keep cockerels that you know are from her/FIL's flock - and how much genetic 'fresh genes' would that introduce. I no longer remember the lineage of all of yours, and know you have given them some of your chicks, too.....
Silver was the last of the seed start, but some of her sisters are still running around at the in-laws. Cheetah has 4 daughters here and 4 there. Whiskey is from there. Tuff is Cheetah's grandson, with his mother from there (but living here). Nellie and Thing are/were the only 2 with offspring there. There's a batch of new blood there that I don't know what they are (blue/black with blonde hackle/saddle feathers, green/moss/mint eggs). There's also the Bielefelders of which I've never gotten offspring from.
That said - if your flock will tolerate an additional cockerel without undo stress/fighting, I would say DO IT. Unfortunately, you have a lot of risks, and having an extra Roo as both a look-out and a defender is a good thing. It would mean each roo has to 'look out for' fewer hens, and allow for the flock to still be in a variety of places and still have a roo ( or two if a larger selection of hens) to be on the look-out.
Before making the decision on Hector (mostly based upon hen reactions to him), I had been planning on keeping 1 cockerel, putting my total at 5. Cheetah is 4, Whiskey (and Hector) 3, Tuff is 2. At this point, every year with Cheetah I consider a bonus. I don't know the lifespan of the Hamburgs so
. I'm pretty sure pretty boy is a bielefelder mix so definitely new blood. The buff boy is probably a BO mix of some sort (quite a bit of that line there, Pippa, Maizie, Whiskey have it, and Tuff through mama Pippa/Maizie). There's the blue boy which MUST be from there as none of mine could produce the light edging on his hackles (would be red or black). There's the 1st to pop wattles boy who looks like a mini Whiskey. He could be Whiskey's son, or more likely full brother from there. Last one is a black boy with a dainty build. I think he is either Cheetah's son from Hetty/Nimbus, or Cheetah's grandson from Thing's daughters, so a male there. He doesn't have the 5th toe or the crest, nor has he popped any leakage yet which makes me think he doesn't have red in him (the red shoulders roo stuff), making the Thing possibility higher.
My 2 cents. You do what you feel you have space for (in the coop) and what the flock will tolerate and live peacefully with, while still maintaining enough genetic diversity. (
and, maybe, help allay the urge for physical/color diversity in your flock
.)
Middle 30s is about the limit. I'm wanting to keep 3-4 pullets. I want the Colombian marked, the Thing blue girl, and the splash girl. The other females consist of several golds, a couple of black, a couple of brown, the 3rd blue, and a couple of brown-dusted black. There's an assortment of feathered feet, beards, clean legs, no beards.
The golds I'm planing on sending there. A couple have that alertness/slim build that could be hamburg, leghorn, or something else which would be valuable there just for survival skills.
The darker toned chicks.....
upper right are the Bielefelder x and the splash. The heavy laced blue in the middle is the crested. The rest are some of the assorted, including the black cockerel.
the Whiskey mini, one of the Golden Girls, and some of the dark ladies.
more assortments (front trio: splash, crest, Colombian)
One of the dark, marked pullets
The lightest of the chocolate
Tailless blue boy
he's got to be from the blue boys there or the female version of those, or both, making him entirely new genetics. He's also a chunky boy.
Whiskey mini
the Bielefelder mix keeper.
I think it's safe to say there's enough variety in both flocks (mine has the brahmas, RIR, partridge rock....there has the green egger (some feathered feet, I swear there's black skin in some of these), buff orpingtons, Bielefelder...both have wyandottes, barred rock, EE (who knows what), australorp, and offspring from both sides.....and some offspring of offspring....
for you, good fella
sick), threw down hay, thinned the tomatoes…..
