How many roosters are too many?

[offmyroost]

Well it's official. Flo is really Floyd. He is about 3 1/2 months old and he had all the signs but today was his first crow. Unfortunately, in my flock of fourteen, Abigail is now Abe, and Winona is now Wyatt. That means that I have 3 roosters and 11 hens. Since I am new to chicken raising, I'm not sure if I will necessarily have to start making arrangements for a new home for one or more of my roos. Is there any possibility that three will be ok? From what I have read, the chances sound slim. Is there anyone out there who has had that high of a roo to hen ratio?

 

[AngelzFyre]

I think most will agree only one roo with 10 hens. Sometimes you can get by with 2 if they've been raised together but in my personal experience that hasn't ever happened! As soon as they get breeding age they start fighting over the hens and trying to outdo the other to see who will reign supreme. Even with one roo and 10 hens per coop when they were young and first breeding I had every single one of my hens wearing aprons ..so I can't imagine more than one in there with mine.

You can always just start a second flock of course

.

I now have 3!! LOL

 

[Tanichca]

I have three roos to a flock of 8 hens... no fighting at all, unless its between the two top hens. I just think its a matter of size, age, and if you raised the roos together.

 

[Rowtag]

It really varies. My current roo likes to have a buddy to help him watch the flock if I get more than about 8 hens (I am at that brink right now). Last year I let him keep a banty roo to help him with guard duties and it made him much happier (I had around 14 hens). With fewer birds this year I have only the one rooster. If your birds grew up together they might be fine, I would be more worried about your hens being over bred with that many roosters. That is one of those things where you would need to monitor really closely as they mature to make sure they aren't hurting each other or the hens.

 

[Jeffross1968]

A month ago we had 3 roosters (though at the time, only 1 was confirmed). We are now down to 1. As the two younger ones, who were raised together, began to mature, and once they were introduced to a new coop and some new hens, problems began to arise. We gave away the older one, because he was picking on both the younger two (which weren't confirmed at that point), and then once we knew the other two were both roos, we understood why things were so stressful. We took the meanest of the two, who's aggression really bloomed once the first roo was removed, and gave him away, leaving us with one, maybe 5 month old roo, to 9 hens (another 4 at about 13 weeks getting ready to be introduced). With the removal of those 2 roos, the flock has been awesome together. Literally, in 8 days, we went from total chaos to peace and tranquility.

My suggestion, is that you react to the circumstances. If you start to have a problem, find the main aggressor and remove him. If your heart is really set on keeping him, keep him sequestered for a bit, and put him back with the flock. Could be the removal reset his place in the pecking order. But I think chances are you'll be better off giving him away or serving him for dinner

Do this with your roos until you have a happy flock. I felt a little bad about giving away our gold sebright. He was a really cool little roo. But when I walk out there now and see how happy everyone is, the guilt goes away.

 

[stuckinthecity]

Quote:
I agree... I have about 4 hens that need aprons. That's one roo to ten hens. He's only a year+ old though.

 

[offmyroost]

Thank you all for your compassionate replies. I guess I will wait and see what happens. I have several friends who have said they would like a quiet rooster. Hmmm.