Ideal Ratio of Roosters to Hens

[lildinkem]

Oh Yeah their on it. I like to carry a minimum of three boys going into the winter for each breed I have. And alot of my flocks are young. So, I need aggressive boys. And am glad to say the young men do their job.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm making an assumption. When you breed the hens with the roosters for hatching, you will isolate them by breed so you will get purebred chicks. Otherwise you will get mutts. Roosters don't care which breed a hen is. The different breeds are a manmade thing, not a natural chicken thing. You probably know this but I'll mention it anyway.

I'd suggest two roosters per breed. It varies by individual, but one full sized rooster can pretty much assure 10 to 12 hens are laying fertile eggs, some more and some less. With two roosters per 15 hens, you can be pretty sure all eggs are fertile. You don't need to feed more than two roosters per breed to assure fertility. With this, you will have a spare rooster per breed if something happens to one of them. You also mentioned genetic diversity. You get more genetic diversity with two roosters than one while I don't think you gain a whole lot of genetic diversity with three compared to two. The alpha probably will not let the two subordinants have that many hens.

Another thing to consider. When you decide to hatch the eggs, how many will you hatch at one time? Will you keep all the eggs all 15 hens of that breed are laying and hatch them, or will you select a smaller number? As you have seen, you can keep multiple roosters together. You also acknowledge that there can sometimes be problems with multiple roosters. I always try to advise to keep the minimum number of roosters consistent with your goals to minimize the chance of problems. If you are going to isolate the hens and roosters by breed when it is time to hatch the eggs, you don't necessarily have to get eggs from all 15 hens to hatch. You could put your best 8 to 10 hens with the best rooster and hatch those eggs. You lose some genetic diversity and a back-up, but maybe something to consider, especially if you don't want to feed the extra roosters.

Also, when you take a bunch of hens and two roosters from the general flock and isolate them, you are changing the pecking order of the flock, both the general flock plus the new flock you are creating. For the new flock it is possible the two roosters will have a dominance issue, especially if neither of the two were top alpha of the flock. I'm not saying they definitely will have issues, just that it is a possibility. And if you take roosters out of the flock for a time then put them back, they might have dominance issues when you mix them back in, or, especially if the rooster you took out was the dominant rooster, in the general flock itself when you take them out. Again, I'm not saying it is absolutely going to happen, just something to consider. Maybe keeping the roosters in a bachelor pen isolated from the females until you want to breed specific ones, then putting them back in the bachelor pen after you have your hatching eggs. This might make for a more peaceful flock once you start your breeeding program.

With certain assumptions and what I think your goals are, I still think two roosters per breed is your best bet, but there can be some management issues you want to consider. Playing it by ear and being prepared to act if necessary may be the best course.

Anyway, there are my thoughts. Good luck!!

 

[Diavolicchio]

Quote:
Yup, that's the plan. When it comes time to breed each variety to get my next generation of chickens, I'll do so one breed at a time, and will select the rooster of each breed whose traits I most want to perpetuate and isolate him in a breeding pen with the three best hens of the same breed. I'll keep the four isolated for a couple of weeks before I even think to keep any of the eggs for breeding purposes, just to make sure all of the previously fertilized eggs have passed through the hens' systems. '

Quote:
You address a key issue here, specifically whether the return of feeding a third rooster of each breed is worth the extra money to do so, when I could just as easily go with 16 hens and 2 roosters of each breed (rather than 15 and 3). I'm still not completely decided though. I'd like to hear from a number of people who breed their own chickens as to what their position is on keeping (and feeding) that third rooster.

Quote:
Again, all great info. I only plan to ever have enough chickens to fill the chicken house I'll be building, which at 560 sq ft, will max out at 140 chickens @ 4 sq ft/chicken. If I stay with the original seven breeds (and that's my plan), I'll have a max of 20 chickens of each. The question is whether to have 18 and 2, 17 and 3 or push things and go with 18 and 3. We may be splitting hairs here, but I'd really like to work out what the optimal arrangement would be. To answer your question about how many eggs I'd hatch at one time, it would probably be 50, so statistically I'd end up with 25 pullets and 25 cockerels. Most of the cockerels would be beefed up for 8 to 9 weeks and then sent off to freezer camp, whereas most of the pullets would be kept for the next generation of hens.

Quote:
I've not gotten this far yet in planning things out. I'm guessing this will end up being a bunch of other threads I post at a later date. I do think the idea of having a rooster pen within the chicken house is warranted. That way, if I have three roosters of each breed, I could rotate them with them hens, hopefully minimizing fighting and dominance issues.

Quote:
My guess is I'll probably err on the side of conservatism initially and go with 3 roosters and 15 hens of each, and not completely max out the space in the chicken house (I'd have 126 total rather than 140.) Over time, when I'm comfortable just keeping 2 roosters of each, I'll go with 2 roosters and 18 hens of each. In the short term though, I'll likely be starting with 15 and 3.

Thanks again for all of the great suggestions and feedback.



John

 

[Katy]

I'll keep the four isolated for a couple of weeks before I even think to keep any of the eggs for breeding purposes, just to make sure all of the previously fertilized eggs have passed through the hens' systems.

You need to keep them seperated for 4 weeks before you can be sure that the eggs are pure from that pairing.​

 

[Diavolicchio]

Quote:
You need to keep them seperated for 4 weeks before you can be sure that the eggs are pure from that pairing.

I assumed it was only 21 days, given the gestation cycle of the chicken. How did you arrive at a full month?

EDIT:

I just checked the Raising Chickens for Dummies book and they state:

"Hens can store semen for two weeks or longer. Depending on her prior living arrangements, to make sure you're getting the offspring from a certain hen and rooster, you must isolate the hen for three weeks before introducing the rooster -- or at least not save her eggs for hatching for that length of time."


John

 

[Katy]

Quote:
You need to keep them seperated for 4 weeks before you can be sure that the eggs are pure from that pairing.

I assumed it was only 21 days, given the gestation cycle of the chicken. How did you arrive at a full month?


John

I suppose if you're just hatching for yourself the timing isn't as important. But as a seller of purebred hatching eggs I wouldn't sell any eggs from my birds without them being seperated for a full month. That is one of the reasons I keep them seperated year round.

The incubation time for an egg really has nothing to do with it, it's how long the sperm is stored and can remain viable.

 

[Diavolicchio]

Quote:
Katy,

Whether I'd be breeding the chickens just for myself or potentially for resale to anyone else, I'd still maintain the same high level of standards in keeping the line completely pure. I'm just curious how a hen could possibly produce eggs fertilized by an undesirable rooster if she's been completely isolated from other roosters for a full 21 days. How would that even be possible? I can see you going with a full month just for your own peace of mind, but physically I can't see any way that a hen isolated for 21 days COULD produce eggs fertilized by any rooster aside from the one introduced at day 22.

Educate me here, Katy. Would you? I'm all ears.



John

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Yes, by the time 3 weeks is past you are probably safe, but I'd rather wait the full month than chance a customer hatching out a mutt chicken. I don't think they'd be very pleased about that.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've seen a post on here where someone claimed to have hatched an egg that was laid 3-1/2 weeks after the rooster was killed. I assume the poster knew what they were talking about. The extension sites I have seen recommend three weeks, but since you are dealing with living animals, anything can happen. And the "two weeks" they stay fertile after a mating is also an average. It can be less. They are living animals. Nothing is set in stone.

 

[lildinkem]

I've read that a newly introduced Roo will flush out all others sperm within a few days. I plan on doing a breeding of my Red Speckled Sussex and my Buff Orp girls for a friend. But, for the next three weeks EVERYTHING from those girls goes into the Bator. IF what I read is right I will have a few Sussex/Buff Orp mixes hatching of my own. Then I'll go back to my Buff breeding program..