So hens and roos hatch at a 50/50 ratio, but I always hear roos don't do well unless it is at least 10 hens per roo. How does that happen in nature? I know chickens don't really exist in nature, at least I didn't see the episode of National Geographic with the great flocks of chickens migrating over the savanah, but without intervention from the stew pot do the roosters really kill that many of each other off to create that 10/1 ratio? Or do the wussy roosters go live by themselves? Just wondering.
Well, if you count us people as part of nature, then it all works! Think the stewpot works a whole lot faster though, than natural selection ever could!
think pheasant, quail, turkeys... males do kill each other off...they take chances and get killed at a higher rate...usually of more striking colors (easier seen)...less dominate animals stay on fringe and try to catch a hen on the sly and yes there are wild chickens...jungle fowl and several other types...not a sexy animal likey to make National Geographic like the lion!
in the wild, the predators are the "stew pot".. and in the wild a hen can outrun the roosters so there is not so much of the gang bang factor..
Probably like a lot of other animals... the lower level males probably congregate outside of the flock or just be subservient. We were watching a youtube show on horses (i think this one ) and it says how the alpha stallion rules his harem of females and the lesser males just kinda hang together off on their own. Either that or the male chickens get killed off?
Quote:Check out the wild chickens that live in Hawaii. When we went to Kauai they were all over. There would be hens walking through parking lots with their chicks following behind. Sorry, this probably didn't help answer your question, but I thought the chickens over there were really neat. At the time I wasn't a chicken fanatic, or I probably would have paid more attention to the amt of roos vs hens that I saw. And taken more pics (and I probably wouldn't have been letting my son chase that rooster!) Kauai chickens My son chasing a rooster
Death in the wild is usually quite high among males. A good roo will stand up against predators to protect his hen. How many predators are in the wild? How long do you think they last at that? Then if you try to keep roos together you'll find out many will kill each other eventually. That's part of the point of 1 roo per 10 hens or we wouldn't have a problem keeping 10 roos with 10 hens if we didn't mind having 9 chickens that don't really do anything. Most people who have tried that probably wouldn't suggest it.
