How many roosters are too many roosters?

[buttertart]

I started my chicken days at the end of March 2017. I bought 11 red sex link (females) from a farm supply store. I bought six black sex link from a local small place. Five hens and one rooster. All the birds were marked properly as sex links are. I purposely bought one black rooster, he had the dot on his head.
They are all nearing the four month mark now and it has been obvious now for some time I have four black roosters. I guess they weren't quite bred properly. Either way they are beautiful and being hand raised by me they are all still friendly and pretty much living well together with the 13 hens. They have a large free range area out the back of their coop. The boys are starting to do their mounting on the hens which probably looks worse to me than to them, but I don't know.

My question is.... is four roosters too many for the hens. Will it bother them. There is the occasional head to head by one or two of the roosters or a rooster to one of the hens who thinks she is the boss, she was the bigger one right from the start.

Should I be re homing some of them? One of the roosters is smaller and still pretty quiet, he comes by name. He is the original one that I knew was a rooster.

Just looking for some advice on what I can expect in the future with them. The girls have not started laying yet but I expect that very soon.

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

Beautiful flock! And handsome boys! If you like the roos and they get along you may be fine. If you notice they are to aggressive with the girls you'll need to rehome a couple.
Hope all works out well for you.

 

[CiceroXY]

I suppose it depends on the personality of the rooster: there isn't an absolute rule. I own Australorps and I can tell you that it's a very calm temperament breed but I have had good and bad roosters.. I remember the time I had this little brood of 2 males and 5 females all brothers and sisters which grow up together: At six months circa, the 2 cockerels started fighting for the pullets everyday.. their combs and wattles were always covered in blood because they violently bit each other so I decided to separate them from the pullets and I moved them to a place where they couldn't even see the females.. I thought the problem was solved but a couple of days after I found one of the 2 cockerels dead (probably heart attack) with signs of struggle on his comb and wattles

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

My first birds were 7 straight run. 3 turned out to be roosters. They got along fine. Now I have a lot more hens and they still get along fine.

 

[lazy gardener]

I would choose the best cockerel, and get rid of the rest. They will put a lot of wear on the pullets, even if the boys all get along with each other.

 

[CiceroXY]

I would choose the best cockerel, and get rid of the rest. They will put a lot of wear on the pullets, even if the boys all get along with each other.

I think the same, 4 roosters are too many for 13 hens.. They all could even get along with each other but they could also tire the hens too much.
In my opinion 2 roosters for 13 hens is a good solution

 

[buttertart]

Thank you to everyone. I was also thinking of the way four roosters would be hard on the hens just from watching the one big one already chasing them down and trying to hump them. The one bigger hen they seem to be more interested in right now just manages to out run them but they do put up a good chase. I will try and rehome two of them soon. See how that goes. Its hard to do I am attached to them of course and they always come running to me.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Thank you to everyone. I was also thinking of the way four roosters would be hard on the hens just from watching the one big one already chasing them down and trying to hump them. The one bigger hen they seem to be more interested in right now just manages to out run them but they do put up a good chase. I will try and rehome two of them soon. See how that goes. Its hard to do I am attached to them of course and they always come running to me.

It's true that every situation will be different. At the age of your boys, they haven't yet hit their protective hormone stage... so really the one you THINK is the sweetest might turn out to be the biggest jerk ever in terms of human contact.

Yep, WAY to many cockerels for your girls. I personally advise against keeping more than 1. One rooster is plenty to cover all your girls and more.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

 

[aart]

I would choose the best cockerel, and get rid of the rest. They will put a lot of wear on the pullets, even if the boys all get along with each other.

Ditto Dat^^^

Think about winter, when the birds may spend all day(sometimes days on end) cooped up due to nasty weather. Cabin Fever can get ugly.

.....and if this is your first year and eating eggs is your only goal, you may not want to deal with any males at all. Can depend on your goals and housing options. You only need 1 male to fertilize 13 females if you're interested in hatching out replacement layers

4 months is just the beginning, be ready with a separate enclosure cause if things go bloody, it happens fast.

 

[CiceroXY]

4 months is just the beginning, be ready with a separate enclosure cause if things go bloody, it happens fast.

I completely agree