Help! How many hens should I have?

Seriously, since you are just starting, my suggestion would be to re-home all but one rooster and learn your flock from scratch.
Having several roosters at all is a task and a headache that could present issues you shouldn't experience while learning to be owned by your crew.
"Speaking Chicken" will be important. It's like having kids. You know the voice of your own kids above the din of others you also know when your crew will be clucking for treats, dancing and cackling when an egg gets laid and "HELP!".
Having to go out because two roosters are duking it out can lose the alarm of "There's a Fox in the yard!"
Baby steps....learn who you are in the crew. You don't want to go out and break up a fight to suddenly be the target of multiple roosters. You'll lose face in the pecking order if not some blood.
I am the alpha when I'm in the run, the girls stay close to me. I give the rooster respect, he still hates me and we have had our go-arounds but he tolerates my intrusion and has really turned out to be a good leader of his flock.
If it wasn't for me knowing his sounds I would have lost the whole flock to a pit bull and a Shepherd last weekend.
 
Seriously, since you are just starting, my suggestion would be to re-home all but one rooster and learn your flock from scratch.
Having several roosters at all is a task and a headache that could present issues you shouldn't experience while learning to be owned by your crew.
"Speaking Chicken" will be important. It's like having kids. You know the voice of your own kids above the din of others you also know when your crew will be clucking for treats, dancing and cackling when an egg gets laid and "HELP!".
Having to go out because two roosters are duking it out can lose the alarm of "There's a Fox in the yard!"
Baby steps....learn who you are in the crew. You don't want to go out and break up a fight to suddenly be the target of multiple roosters. You'll lose face in the pecking order if not some blood.
I am the alpha when I'm in the run, the girls stay close to me. I give the rooster respect, he still hates me and we have had our go-arounds but he tolerates my intrusion and has really turned out to be a good leader of his flock.
If it wasn't for me knowing his sounds I would have lost the whole flock to a pit bull and a Shepherd last weekend.
Oh yes, I definitely agree. Exactly why I sought the advice of seasoned chicken owners. I will be getting rid of all but probably the silkie male. I of course want to do what's best for the chickens and our family too. Thank y'all so much again!
 
Oh yes, I definitely agree. Exactly why I sought the advice of seasoned chicken owners. I will be getting rid of all but probably the silkie male. I of course want to do what's best for the chickens and our family too. Thank y'all so much again!
I might suggest a few silkie hens if you want to raise chicks.
They are the sweetest friendly birds to fall in love with and will go broody if a stiff breeze goes by. Excellent mothers and will hatch anyone's chicks and raise them.
 
Last question, is it safe to make sure 100% that they're going to be roosters by crowing first and then I can rehome? One I believe was trying to, but I'd hate to give away a hen on accident by lack of knowledge.
 
Oh man, that's a bummer to hear! I love all my chickens! We definitely can't have more than ten and ten and is pushing it! Well, this is why I asked. Same thing for silkie chickens? I know for sure we have a buff Orpington cockerel and a white silkie cockerel.
I keep a higher number of silkie cockrels to females... But that is just me. It may not work for everyone. But I have 3 silky roos (almost 1 year old) with 8 silky females (range in age from 7months to 2 1/2 years old) and everyone gets along fine. The only issue is one of females is favorite of one of the roos... and she has basically no feathers left on her neck from mating. I dont know what exactly to do about it though cause when I tried to separate her for a few days to give her a break she was so depressed
 
At the bottom end, you need at least two, as they are social creatures and keeping just one is cruel (unless you put her in a diaper and make her into a house pet, which, yes, you can do). After 24 to 32 weeks of growing up, your hens will lay an egg almost every day for eight or nine months straight, then take a break for a few weeks to a few months (typically in the winter), and then start laying again. Each time they start laying again, they will lay fewer, but larger, eggs.

It is not unusual for a pet hen to lay for five years—at which point she may be laying only a couple of eggs a week on average—and to live even longer. Think about how many dozen eggs you and your family typically use in a week and figure on starting with two standard-size (or four bantam-size) hen chicks per dozen. Then plan on adding about half that many every spring to keep egg production up (assuming you will be keeping your old girls on for their natural lives and not inviting them to dinner when production starts to dwindle).
 
You say how many hens? Hundreds... unless you don’t have he land! Haha jk

I bought a straight run for my first flock and it came out 50/50. I waited till 15 weeks and then culled 4. 10or 12 to 1 ratio is good. I noticed the last week them fighting over which hen is theirs. I had one cockerel that would peck the hen if she allowed me to pick her up.... he is in the freezer now! Going to be a good Memorial Day dinner! Haha
 
Oh great! That's actually exactly what we want to do!
You want to breed? You need to figure out right now what you will do with the extra males you will hatch. You're going to have to learn to let some go or have a bachelor pen. If you can afford to keep feeding nonproductive birds year after year, that's great, but not practical for many of us. Especially if you want to try to make money at it.
Last question, is it safe to make sure 100% that they're going to be roosters by crowing first and then I can rehome? One I believe was trying to, but I'd hate to give away a hen on accident by lack of knowledge.
You need to keep an eye on things and have a plan in place so you can act immediately when (not *if* but *when*) things go south. Once those hormones hit, your pullets will be chased and harassed relentlessly. A few years ago I had equal numbers of pullets and cockerels, and when the testosterone poisoning hit those boys, the pullets couldn't eat, drink, dust bathe or even just lay around in the grass because there would be multiple cockerels after them. It can get ugly real fast.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom