How many Roosters is to many for one pen?

[juliadonavant]

We are new to raising chickens and received 5 Silkies and 4 Plymouth Partridges as gifts to get us started. We built one pen and a coop for all of them. We have determined that 4 of the 5 Silkies are roosters and only 1 is a hen and the 4 Plymouths are hens. We are been researching and have found information that too many Roosters in one pen can lead to aggression and fighting. We don't want that to occur and are trying to determine how many is too many.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Some breeders get away with 2 Silkie roos in one pen.... however with that being said, you should never have more than two in the same pen, and you defintely need at least 2 or 3 (if not more) hens per rooster.

Too many roosters and not enough hens means over breeding and undue stress on the hens....

 

[purplepoen]

See how it goes, it all depends on the attitude of your roos, I've got 'way too many' in my coop and they're all just fine and peaceful.

 

[Katy]

Right now I've got 6 roosters in with my laying flock of about 60 hens. 1 rooster to ten hens is what most people recommend.

 

[al6517]

I have 6 roosters in with about 40 hens some pullets are to young to lay, but the roosters to have thier own order and seem to get along just fine, I say just watch and learn how many is to much.

 

[dangerouschicken]

1 roo per 10-12 hens. More than that and you have the roos far too rough on the girls. They will tag team mate, and it is not pretty

You really want to rehome them if possible.

 

[English Chick]

Quote:
Personally, and it is only personally, I do not allow any of my cockerels to run with my girlies, particularly as some of the girls are young birds themselves and the "roos" are large. I have individual pens for mine, next year when I want to breed from them I will put a number of girls to them and remove after a couple of days. I want to keep my blood lines pure and don't wish to in-breed too much. But best of luck.

Opps sorry dangerous chicken, did not mean to tag this onto your reply...blonde moment xx

 

[bishopschickens]

I have 1 rooster per 4 hens and it works just fine. 10-12 hens per rooster is a lie! Ive had as many as 10 roosters together with no problem. Just depends on the breed and the individual attitudes.

 

[Momma_Cluck]

We have a barred Rock, Partridge Rock, 2 OE, 2 Black Silkes, 2 White Silkies and a Golden laced Seabright Roo-- all liveing together with no issues.... We have 1 male of each breed we have in the coop so we can breed later-- but the new babies we got are all pullets (save one roo they sent by mistake!

) Those I'll get roo's of Later after I determine which ones I want to breed....

If raised together-- and introduced CAREFULLY, keeping Roo's together shouldn't be a huge issue... if there is one or 2 that fight-- remove them from the bunch--

 

[Chickenaddict]

I had 4 roosters when i first started keeping chickens as pets and only about 10 hens and they were fine until they grew up a bit then all He** broke loose and they began to fight so i had no choice but to rehome 3 out of the 4. I kept the most docile rooster and he is still here today. All roosters were different breeds, 2 banties and 2 standards. I would NEVER put my girls thru that again!