I need options; roosters to hen ratio.

[Shezadandy]

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.

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that it matters more who the rooster's mom was and how productive SHE is/was.

Chickens are opposite of humans. Human females are XX and males are XY. Chicken females are ZW (the rough equivalent of XY) and males are ZZ.

In any mating, a pullet will get her one and only Z (our X) copy from the rooster, and the hen will only contribute a W (our Y) to that same pullet. Therefore the rooster is the sole source of the "Z" chromosome to all of his daughters, and that Z chromosome has a lot more "stuff" on it than the W chromosome does.

Of course, the rooster has two Z's - one from his mom and one from his dad - so his daughters could be getting either one. My point is - the leghorn hens that laid the eggs you hatched couldn't pass on her Z (X) chromosome to her daughters, which might account for the disappointing laying of the offspring. If one of the leghorn hens' sons was used on the flock, he would be the sole vessel for distributing her Z chromosome to offspring.

It's a lot like heart size genetics in horses. Secretariat had the famously gigantic heart. None of his sons had the large heart gene (from him, though it appeared in other lines when they tested for it), much to the chagrin of those who bought breeding shares --- because (as it was later discovered) the large heart gene was carried by his daughters on the X chromosome. He could only give his sons his Y chromosome.

 

[Manhen]

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.

I?

Can you cage them? Some of them? I intend to cage or pen socially deviant roosters.

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

I put my LF rooster “Blackie” with my young hens. He had been the low man in the beginning flock. Blackie had around 20 pullets and two Silkies. Of course, my first two Silkies were boys. One became Blackie’s shadow. Blackie would literally take a step back and step on Beckett. (Beckett was otherwise excellent at staying behind Blackie.). Bueller took the opposite approach. He stayed on the opposite side of the yard from Blackie at all times. Blackie walked around the coop? Bueller ran the other way. Blackie was making time with the hens in the main area? Bueller was dancing for the passing ladies on his side of the coop.

After a year or two I decided to put Bueller and Beckett in a coop of their own. They got a chicken tractor... and two Buff Orpington girls. There was much Domestic Harmony.

Side note: Blackie mated one of the pullets. I started to yell “she’s just a baby”, then I stopped and counted months. Those girls were almost four months old. Blackie said it was time to fertilize! About a week later I found two little blue eggs from the two pullets. Blackie knew better than I did that the girls were about to lay.

Sometimes... they know more than we do.

Also, when Blackie saw the Silkies the first time, I do believe he didn’t think they were chickens! He gave me some weird looks, especially while Beckett attempted his kazoo crows. “Mother? What the heck have you penned with me?”

 

[Manhen]

Mother? What the heck have you penned with me?

I felt that way in college.

 

[EggWalrus]

...
Sure, if you chuck a randomly selected bunch of chickens in a single coop with no established adults and sense of belonging to a particular group you'll get mayhem. You would with any creature including humans. Having them free range may help some but it's having an established hierarchy and flock stability that keeps order.
You can keep a 1:1 ratio provided you house them separately.
You can keep 1:3 ratios very easily with no over mating problems. You just need to keep the groups separate. If you free range and provide coops they'll sort themselves out.
I just don't hear these horror stories where I live.

Like "Lord of the Flys".

 

[Sheeba]

Ok so I know I’ve heard people say you can only have so many roosters to hens. What if you have bantams roosters in a mixed flock of sizes? What have you noticed work? And what do you guys think...

First I guess I should tell you I have 9 females, five are about 3 years old because a family couldn’t take care of them. And 4 adults are a little over a year, we already had from chicks. After a few months of the two older groups getting along, chick season happened at tractor supply...

And..

So about 3 months ago my mom and I got carried away with buying chicks. The first two batches we got mixed bantams from the store, that put the chick count at 6 bantams than we got 7 regular sized. I can list down the breeds latter.

At a month we started to put all of them together, the chicks and the adults. And I know what some people are thinking... that’s not a good idea but the adult females took to them. We monitored them at first at about two and a half months we noticed some traits from two where male. The adults even treated them differently a week or so latter we noticed two more possible males. At 3 months and a week two where full crowing and one was starting anther we’re still not sure. So the 3 for sure and 1 possible males I know of are all bantams. so far they all get along and it almost seems like the boys talk to each other while there rounding the girls. they actually move them in packs one will be at the head one in back and two in the sides and you hear communication because they repeat each other’s squawks until all four know each others location.

There was even a moment where I was holding one of the confirmed males in my hand. Brought him into the house to wash his head (white crested polish) I started heading to the back, as I was rounding the corner and saw the other males (Sebright) let out this crazy dinosaur squawk scream the polish I was holding made exactly that same sound. So I let the polish down and he ran clear across the yard to the Sebright. They didn’t bump chests they just weirdly waited together till the other male Sebright and silkie joined. No like they stood in a cereal faced each other and went to four different groups. 5 minutes all 4 gathered all the girls adult and young chicks and they all walked into there outside inclosure.

At this point they seem like they all work together well. I’m just curious from other people’s opinions is it possible to keep all of them?

If roosters are raised together, for the most part they will get along just fine; however, your poor hens will be rode to death- to the point of loosing feather and become bareback. Once bareback has occurred they can get sunburned. Roosters and hens should be very close to this. 8-10 hens per roosters - 10 being the better count - 8 is a good count if that's all you have and one rooster. Hope that helps

 

[MountainGaurdian]

I only run one rooster per flock when they are closed up in buildings for the winter, keeps the roos from fighting. All the extra roos live in the outside dirt floor half of one of the chicken coups.

I keep extra roos through the winter and let them out in early spring and then move my non setting hens to the outer dirt floor pens. Late in the summer after my chicks are born I like to separate them out with the hens in the different coups and kick out the non setting hens to free graze. By the time the hens get out to free graze the roos have become pretty savvy about watching for hawks, eagles etc and keep the hens safe.

I like to keep 10 to 15 extra roos that way I can afford to lose a few to predators in the spring when I let them out and still have plenty of them to protect the hens when I let them out late in the summer to free graze.

 

[Ted Brown]

I only run one rooster per flock when they are closed up in buildings for the winter, keeps the roos from fighting. All the extra roos live in the outside dirt floor half of one of the chicken coups.

I keep extra roos through the winter and let them out in early spring and then move my non setting hens to the outer dirt floor pens. Late in the summer after my chicks are born I like to separate them out with the hens in the different coups and kick out the non setting hens to free graze. By the time the hens get out to free graze the roos have become pretty savvy about watching for hawks, eagles etc and keep the hens safe.

I like to keep 10 to 15 extra roos that way I can afford to lose a few to predators in the spring when I let them out and still have plenty of them to protect the hens when I let them out late in the summer to free graze.

Pragmatic and to the point; needs space to work I would think.

 

[MountainGaurdian]

Pragmatic and to the point; needs space to work I would think.

Yes it does, not really an issue for me as I have a number of chicken barns.

 

[aart]

Most here don't have a lot of space, often the opposite.

Yes it does, not really an issue for me as I have a number of chicken barns.

You have a breadth of space and livestock experience, enjoyed all your photos. Welcome to BYC!