Hens and roosters

[Nebraska04]

Is it ok to have 3 roosters with 14 hens?(roosters are different breeds if that helps anything)(Hens are all different from each other too)

 

[rosemarythyme]

It's "ok" until it's not. In a perfect world the boys all get along (with one taking the lead) and don't harass the hens. In an imperfect world the boys turn on each other and fight over the ladies, and/or group up to force mate them.

So it may work out, but always have a backup plan.

 

[aart]

How old are all the birds?
Why do you need 3 males?

 

[GoldpartridgeHen]

Also what breeds are the roosters?
Different breeds could affect how vicious or placid they can be...

 

[aart]

Also what breeds are the roosters?
Different breeds could affect how vicious or placid they can be...

Ehhh, maybe....but breed doesn't guarantee demeanor.
Especially with multiple males in tight spaces.
Environment of competition can really bring out the worst of all their behaviors.

 

[GoldpartridgeHen]

Ehhh, maybe....but breed doesn't guarantee demeanor.
Especially with multiple males in tight spaces.
Environment of competition can really bring out the worst of all their behaviors.

true... but surely three RIR roosters on average would prove to be much more aggresive than three silkie roosters?

and it would surely be safer and more likely to work with 3 silkies rather than 3 RIR's...

 

[red horse ranch]

At times I've had up to 7 roosters mingling with 30 or 40 hens. Right now I have 2 roosters with 23 hens. As some of the others have said, it all depends on the personality of the roosters. If a rooster shows a lot of aggression when he starts to mature he will go into the freezer. As long as they get along with each other they can stay.

My 2 roosters now each have their own flock of girls. Since my poultry is all turned loose every morning the boys take their girls to different areas around the buildings. One of my roosters is submissive to the other and is willing to stay at #2 in the rooster pecking order. If they both wanted to be top rooster then there would be problems.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is it ok to have 3 roosters with 14 hens?(roosters are different breeds if that helps anything)(Hens are all different from each other too)

I find that the numbers aren't that important. There are people on here that regularly keep ratios smaller than that. I often have pretty close to that ratio but that's usually with just one rooster.

I also find that breed is not tremendously important. You can read stories on this forum where a rooster of any breed has been horrible (hen too for that matter) for one person while the same breed has been great for others. Breeds may have tendencies but you have to have enough of that breed for averages to mean something. With one of each, you do not.

Individual personalities do make a difference but I find that strain is more important than breed. Let's use Rhode Island Reds, for example. If you breed RIR's with an eye toward what you consider good behavior in a few generations you typically have a flock where the majority of the roosters from that flock exhibit that behavior. A former member of this forum did that with his show quality RIR's and his RIR roosters were not brutes at all. But if you allow RIR's with what you consider bad behavior to breed, your flock may get worse, it will not get better. Unfortunately very few people breed for behavior so it's just pot luck what you get with any breed. So that's point #1, what is the personality of the chickens involved.

I'm not sure which behaviors you are concerned about. If you are talking about human aggression I think strain (heredity) has some effect but how you manage them has a lot. I'll let others argue about how much is heredity versus environment and what the best way to manage them is, I'll just say i believe both have an effect.

If you are talking about roosters fighting, I think part of that is due to personality. Age and how much room they have are important. For any of this in general the more room they have the better. As far as fighting I think it is the most critical. I'm not talking about that 4 square feet in the coop and 10 in the run. Can they get totally out of sight of each other would be the ideal. When they are cockerels and the hormones of puberty hit they will determine which is boss. That might be fights to the death, especially of room is tight, or they may work it out without any getting injured. That's not just one fight and it's done. They mature at different rates so you can expect them to revisit who is boss occasionally. Often, if they don't kill each other as cockerels, mature roosters work out an accommodation as to how to work together to take care of the flock, often with each having his own harem and his own territory. But their can be exceptions to this where they actually hang together.

If there are no females to fight over they typically do not fight any worse than with an all-female flock setting up the pecking order. But it doesn't matte if it is one female or 20, if they have a female to fight over they will.

If you are talking about the females being over-mated you can find plenty of examples where a ratio of 1 rooster with 1 or 2 hens is not a problem. You can find examples of where this is a problem with 1 rooster with over 20 hens. Some of that is the personality of the male. I think the females have a part to play in the social interaction within the flock. Most of the time you read about this on this forum it's about immature cockerels and pullets, not mature roosters and hens. But some roosters (I think because of their personality) never grow out of this phase. Some hens are more prone to these issues. Usually if you can get past the adolescent phase thy grow out of this but not always.

I don't know how old your chickens are, how much room they have or will have, or other things about how you manage them. You may be OK. But I'd have a plan B ready for instant use. That means a place to isolate one or two of those males if you need to.

Good luck!

 

[Syclone]

I love this site for all the wealth of information. Thank you everyone for sharing there info and experiences.

 

[Nebraska04]

How old are all the birds?
Why do you need 3 males?

the Roosters are chicks that I rescued