It is normal for roosters to be larger than the hens. When they mate the hen squats. That gets her body on the ground so the rooster's weight goes through her body into the ground, not just through her legs. To an engineer those loads become area loads as opposed to point loads. Much less stressful. If you have bantams instead of dual purpose hens you might have a problem but I don't see anything to worry about with the hens you show in your photo.
When they mate the rooster grabs the back of the hen's head. Many people get upset when they see that, thinking he is being abusive. He is not. That head grab is nature's way of telling her to raise her tail out of the way so he can hit the target. There would be no fertile eggs without the head grab.
As
@aart said technique plays a part. Sometimes with immature roosters the hens don't willingly squat so he will force them. Anytime force is involved there is a risk if injury but I've never had an injury from that behavior. With living animals you never know what will happen but I don't see any great risk for you from his size.
With two boys they will know which is the dominant rooster. Physical size isn't that important in determining that, it's the size of the spirit. It is not unusual for the smaller to be the dominant one. It is possible things will remain peaceful between them but it is also possible they will break into a serious fight as the younger one matures. I'd suggest having a place ready where you can isolate one on a moment's notice if the need arrives.
Currently 14 hens. (Plans to hatch more.) This roo is just starting to try mating… so far hasn’t been successful but doesn’t go overboard trying and lets the girls get away without much fuss. I just wasn’t sure if he would be too heavy standing on them…didn’t realize they may try without stepping on them. I will monitor this.
I would not count on him not standing on them as the hens are not bantam. In my opinion you are worrying about something that is not a problem. Nature took care of that when she set the hens up to squat during mating.
Dad kept a free ranging flock of between 25 and 30 hens with one dominant rooster. Practically all of the eggs were fertile. These magic numbers for ratios to get fertile eggs are from the way they are kept at the hatcheries, using the pen breeding method. Think 20 roosters in a pen with 200 hens. That is different in how we keep them. Each rooster and each hen is different. Not all roosters are going to be able to keep 25 hens laying fertile eggs, especially when they get older. There is nothing wrong with keeping an extra rooster in your situation as long as they don't regularly try to kill each other. It may actually help with fertile eggs but I'd doubt it is necessary. With living animals you don't get guarantees. But I'd be quite comfortable with one rooster in your situation.
Good luck!
There needs to be a proper ratio....The ratio is usually 10 hens to a rooster but you can also do 8 hens to a rooster as well. Right now my ratio in my biggest coop is 9 hens and a rooster.
