how many roosters?

[chickenbythesea]

I am wondering how many roosters you can keep? We will have a flock of 17 (including 2 roo's if we kept them). We got 7 chicks this spring and three of them are roosters- 2 SLW and 1 silver spangled hamburg. I would really like to keep just the hamburg but my son is already in love with one of the SLW roosters and has already named him. Are 2 too many for a flock of this size and who would you keep?

 

[Fur & Feathers]

hi,that sounds perfectly fine.
have got four older chicks,and two of them are definite roos;have started to suspect a hen is actualy a roo so that means only one hen to neutralise the group.
however,they all get along fine without any territorial infighting,they do the typical chicken pecking order stuff but thats it,we had more problems with our coop of hens only-very dramatic and bitchy <waits for comparison to stereotypical human females>

an uncle of mine keeps a lot of roos with his hens and he says he rarely ever has had problems,he says just to monitor their interaction to make sure there isnt anything beyond typical behavior.

there are some breeds which by default the roos cannot be kept together because they will tear each other apart,but have forgotten the names,do not think they were the more common varieites.
other than that; like mine,shoud only need putting in a new home if there are actual issues.

 

[chickenbythesea]

so you think that 3 roosters for 15 hens is ok? Or should I still get rid of one of them?

 

[Stephanie739]

I am wondering how many roosters you can keep? We will have a flock of 17 (including 2 roo's if we kept them). We got 7 chicks this spring and three of them are roosters- 2 SLW and 1 silver spangled hamburg. I would really like to keep just the hamburg but my son is already in love with one of the SLW roosters and has already named him. Are 2 too many for a flock of this size and who would you keep?

I have too many roosters, but I want to keep my pure bred birds for breeding purposes. The boys don't fight much (not at this point anyway) The only trouble I am having is they are too much for the hens, so I do have to keep a few boys separated from the girls, just by a fence, so they all seem to still belong to the same flock. They still usually sleep in the same coop together.

To answer your question: I would keep both your roos if you have good reasons for doing so, and to me it seems you do!

 

[Stephanie739]

there are some breeds which by default the roos cannot be kept together because they will tear each other apart,but have forgotten the names,do not think they were the more common varieites.
other than that; like mine,shoud only need putting in a new home if there are actual issues.

Yes...the game birds, the fighting chickens
My roos (brahma, orpington, cochins, and a stray/homeless add on RIR) are pretty tame and laid back.

 

[chickenbythesea]

so if I don't want to keep them separate (they already have access to 2 runs so I'm not interested in creating a third) I should just keep the one right?

 

[Stephanie739]

I think you should keep them both until/if a problem arises. You might not ever have any problems.

 

[chickenbythesea]

ok... thanks. No one around her seems to be wanting any roosters and my hubby doesn't think he can cull them and I know I can't do it.

 

[Mountain Bear]

I got 20 chicks this Feb. and culled it down to 8 (5 hens 3 roos). I wanted to keep 1 Rooster of each (RIR, SLW, and Barred Rock) for possible breeding. They all get along together fine in a fairly small coop (8'X12) with no outside run. I would keep them until you see a problem. Just noticed your location, not sure where you are in NS, if you don't want to cull them there are several places around that will do it for a small fee.

 

[chickenbythesea]

my hubby says that if they don't get along he'll build them a rooster house.... I know some people around her who'll do them in, it's just that they're all so pretty