How many hens for a Jersey Giant Roo?

[DevaughnWifey]

I'm new to keeping a rooster, and he's been ordered from mypetchicken and although I've looked a little bit in some of the other forum threads no one seems to have Jersey Giant's, and so I'm wondering if anyone knows how many hens I should have?

I have 11 assorted hens coming with him... but am not sure if that will be too many for him to cover. I'm wondering if I shouldn't build another pen, separate the roo and alternate the hens with him so I know for sure the eggs are fertile? But if I do that will he accept them?? Should I buy another roo? I don't want "cock fights" or something... Also have found 5 easter egger hens for sale near me and am thinking of buying them, but that would bring my hen count well over 23, and with only one roo... Found 2 free roo's available nearby (brahma mixes) so the size would be comparable enough that perhaps the roo's could hold their own against each other but... I'm really not sure how I should handle this.

Thank you for the imput!!

 

[TundraRose]

Are you going to be hatching eggs?

 

[holm25]

5-6 hens

 

[subhanalah]

If you wind up with over 20 hens, you should probably have two roos, but that's only if you have a big enough territory for both of them.

 

[DevaughnWifey]

Are you going to be hatching eggs?

Going to try. Never done it before, and they say that letting the hen do it herself instead of incubating is easiest... besides I've ordered some broodies, so if I have one that goes broody then I'll just let her try sitting on them....

Okie doke. Thank you.

 

[donrae]

If you have one rooster and 11 hens, then all your eggs will be fertile. And your rooster and hens will both be fairly happy. A young, healthy rooster can easily cover that many roosters. I'd just stick with your plan, not worry about getting a bunch more birds to start with.

Your Giant boy is going to be slower to mature than your average production bred rooster, so you may not be looking at hatching eggs until late winter. Next spring he should be plenty able to fertilize the hens, and you'll have a practiced eye to tell if a cracked egg is fertile. If, at that point, you're having fertility issues, the easiest thing would be to pull out some of the hens, ones you don't want to hatch from, and leave him with the smaller number of hens. Should only take 2-3 days until all the hens with him are fertile and will give you fertile eggs for a week. Hatching isn't an ongoing thing for most of us, so your entire flock management doesn't need to be focused on it.

 

[DevaughnWifey]

Okie doke. Thank you!