I need options; roosters to hen ratio.

[EggWalrus]

For the kiddies out there, the other F is Flying over the Electric Fence.
I have a few that are bad about that.

 

[Bookmole353]

If a person is not interested in anything more than just getting eggs, how many roosters do you need? I didn’t want one but I have ended up with at least 8-9. From chicks I bought. I know most everyone here doesn’t want chickens butchered but that’s what we are going to do with them as soon as most of them get fat enough. In the meantime they are going into the place we raised our Cornish meats. We will keep our Brahma rooster “ crumbles”, and maybe one other. I think I have a total of about 80 hens. 39 have been laying for a year, and those I got in February are starting to lay, my egg count started to drop instead of increase so we separated 5 roosters 2 days ago, now egg count is going up. We plan on increasing our coop on the 13th of this month. I only hope the feathers on my hens will grow back, some have patches of missing feathers on their backs, one hen has totally lost her feathers on her tail!

 

[EggWalrus]

If a person is not interested in anything more than just getting eggs, how many roosters do you need? I didn’t want one but I have ended up with at least 8-9. From chicks I bought. I know most everyone here doesn’t want chickens butchered but that’s what we are going to do with them as soon as most of them get fat enough. In the meantime they are going into the place we raised our Cornish meats. We will keep our Brahma rooster “ crumbles”, and maybe one other. I think I have a total of about 80 hens. 39 have been laying for a year, and those I got in February are starting to lay, my egg count started to drop instead of increase so we separated 5 roosters 2 days ago, now egg count is going up. We plan on increasing our coop on the 13th of this month. I only hope the feathers on my hens will grow back, some have patches of missing feathers on their backs, one hen has totally lost her feathers on her tail!

You don't need any roosters if all you want are eggs. But if you want new hens each year, you need a rooster to fertilize the eggs. Youll wind up with more baby roos too, but if you eat chicken, then you can just eat them once they start crowing and mounting hens.

 

[EggWalrus]

If you're in the egg biz and you have just one breed, make sure the roosters you keep are the same breed as hens to keep your lines pure. It makes a big difference in egg size, color, quality, and production. I had some leghorns that free range with "other" roosters and I hatched a bunch of their eggs. The babies were cute but grew up to be horrible egg layers plus the egg size went way down. Cute doesn't make money in the egg biz.

 

[Bookmole353]

That’s what I thought too. We just made it through our first year of chickens. I have so many who want eggs that I increased my flock this year, but when I bought chickens I think that when I got some chicks from the “color pack” tub that they were all roosters. I have some very pretty Americana roosters (white with black marking), and a black rooster with white markings, plus a big red with black on him, plus our Brahma rooster. People around here just don’t want roosters.

 

[Bookmole353]

I have a lot of different breeds (picked up from the feed store) I tried to stay with all the good laying breeds.plus colored eggs.

 

[EggWalrus]

I have a lot of different breeds (picked up from the feed store) I tried to stay with all the good laying breeds.plus colored eggs.

I like the blue eggs too.

 

[AmyJane725]

I saw a video on YouTube of a hen literally get gang raped to death. It was pretty disturbing (and doubly so that a person stood there and filmed the whole thing and didn't lift a finger to help the poor hen). And I'm nervous, because I too have 4 roos that I love, but my rule is definitely that if they're mean to the girls they're outta here. They're two months old now, so puberty is going to be hitting soon.

If I understand correctly, they'll be mating before the hens even start laying (if puberty is 3-4 months and hens don't usually lay until 6)?

 

[Bookmole353]

I like the blue eggs too.

I have green, blue white and all shades of brown clear up to the deep chocolate. Hope to be getting the purple ones soon, probably another mont

 

[EggWalrus]

I saw a video on YouTube of a hen literally get gang raped to death. It was pretty disturbing (and doubly so that a person stood there and filmed the whole thing and didn't lift a finger to help the poor hen). And I'm nervous, because I too have 4 roos that I love, but my rule is definitely that if they're mean to the girls they're outta here. They're two months old now, so puberty is going to be hitting soon.

If I understand correctly, they'll be mating before the hens even start laying (if puberty is 3-4 months and hens don't usually lay until 6)?

That can happen depending on the breed, age, and disposition of the young roos.
My game birds will usually fight to mate the hens and knock each other off her. But my "domestics" have a tendency to do the gang bang when they are teens. They mellow some when they get older and some older ones even put a stop to the teens misbehaving. My Silkies usually start out as gentlemen and will dance/drop a wing on a girl, then politely peck her on the back asking if he has her permission to get some. But even the gentlemen Silkies will start misbehaving if they are allowed to run with and learn from the Rhodies. Nearly every Rhodie I've ever had was bad about it and a bad influence on the rest. But at the same time, they make good shtf survival birds, they are guaranteed to ensure the survival of the species (that's if they don't kill the hens while doing it).