How many roosters per hen?

[bobbi-j]

Generally speaking, you are asking for a lot of trouble with that many roosters in a smaller flock, and probably a limited area. If this is your first time with chickens, and you are raising your first chicks and now realize that you have 4 roosters, I would strongly recommend getting rid of all the roosters. That many will run your hens ragged.

Roosters take experience, and in my opinion, roosters raised with just flock mates tend to become bullies very early. All those hormonal driven tendencies will make them more aggressive to the pullets, more aggressive to each other, and often towards people too. They tend to attack children first, then women and finally men.

Roosters are a crap shoot, some can become very aggressive, really hard to believe if you have not seen them. People without experience often times do not recognize the signs of an imminent attack. This forum is full of posts where the darling became the nightmare in an instant.

Personally, I have a father/son in a group of 15 hens. I am hoping to get to summer and then cull the old rooster. At this time, the juvenile rooster, is low man on the pecking order, and that is good for him. Ideally, I will cull the old boy before the new boy attacks him. It will take careful daily assessment.

To have 4 roosters, I would want 50-60 hens and a great deal of space. If yours is a true backyard set up, I would recommend no roosters. If you have young children, I would recommend no roosters. If you are determined to keep all of them, I would recommend a separate bachelors quarters away from your hens.

Mrs K

Cock birds do not mate equally with all hens. The more superior in the hierarchy the hen is - the less she will accept being mated. The result can be over-mated subordinate hens.

I agree with Mrs. K and forget cockbirds and enjoy your flock for the time being. The more experience you have before keeping cocks, the better your chances of having a positive experience once you take the plunge, imo.

Mrs. K and Pork Pie said everything I was thinking.

 

[Folly's place]

Me too! I currently have 42 hens and pullets, three cockerels, and three adult roosters. they are currently all getting along, but I watch daily, and have no plans to keep all these boys. I have three breeding groups, so a spare for each, but by spring, three roosters will be the most I'll have out there.
Nobody is human aggressive, and at the first hint, any such cockerel is going to the freezer. I do have separate pen space available for emergencies, and a lot of experience, some of it 'learning the hard way'.
Breeding means making decisions about culling, either by trips to the freezer, rehoming, or just not hatching eggs from particular hens.
It's also about the good of the flock, and stressed birds are neither happy nor productive.
Mary

 

[llombardo]

I got 4 chickens to start--2 turned out to be boys. I seperated them at 4 months or so and got 4 more girls. After months and months of integration I did not need the 4 additional females. The boy I kept in there doesn't really overmate. If the girls try to get away, he lets them go. My other one is more likely to overmate. Recently I had them all in the house(run was damaged by tree branch) and I noticed that the two boys did not try to argue at all and there was only a very small barrier between them. When I took the group back outside my inside boy was talking away. Eventually he will be outside with them and I'm keeping them seperate but close to each other. They seem to miss each other.

Do yes it depends on the rooster.