Male/Female Ratio?

[goldenoldiesfarm]

Okay, so I want chickens *bad*, but I'm a little confused on some things.

I'm interested (only) in egg production, whereas my boyfriend wants to use them for meat also. This being said, would it be most economical to purchase roosters with the hens? I want a rooster or two (for looks, I guess), but don't necessarily want the hassle of raising eggs. Is there a ratio of male to female chickens (one male per every whatever females)?

I guess I'm just confused about everything. :B

Thanks a lot

- Sierra

 

[LarryPQ]

If you only want the roo for funsies, just get one.

Edited: if you are raising MEAT birds, raise them seperate from the layers. Meat birds are usually purchased as MALES, since they grow faster and have more meat.

 

[cluckcluck42]

When I first got into chickens (in December! lol) I wondered the same thing. I always knew I was going to raise our own chickens and sell extra layers, but should we get a good dual purpose breed so we can get meat from our culls or just raise meat birds separately? Well, I wasn't sure until recently but I am going to concentrate on layers and if we get a big boy that is good for meat, we will eat him, but for the most part we are going to keep the two endeavours separate and get some meat chickens in two months. You do get attached to them so it may be hard to eat babies you raised but if you get meat birds separately its not so hard. You dont name them and you dont get too friendly!!!

I say concentrate on a good laying breed and get meat chickens in the summer if you want meat. And yes get a rooster. I LOVE my rooster, I really recommend getting one. The crowing isnt all that bad, he hasnt woke us up once and our coop is not 50 feet from the house. And they are SO gorgeous. if you end up getting a breed that goes broody, you can have babies at no extra cost/work for you.

Whatever you choose, careful... chickens are addictive!! You say you dont want the hassle of raising babies, but we shall see

lol.

One rooster per 10 hens is the norm, my roo would service all my hens if the 5 old girls would let him. We bought them from a lady with lots of chickens and I think taking them away from their boyfriends ruined them for any other hunks. Spinsters.

 

[Uzuri]

From the sound of things, you'll want to buy sexed pullets of a laying type and sexed cockerels of a meat type. That's going to be most "economical".

Reason being is that laying-type cockerels grow more slowly than meat-types of either sex. The cost of the chicks themselves are negligible -- the cost of the *feed* is what will get interesting!

And I say this as someone who's going in on a traditional dual-purpose breed meat experiment this summer, so as you can see, I don't follow my own advice. But I've already given up on the word "economical". I'm down to each egg having cost me $7.00 overall at the moment

 

[gryeyes]

I'm not gonna eat ANY of my chickens. I just wanted pets and eggs. I didn't plan on getting any roosters, either, but one of my supposed pullets was an accidental roo. I could have returned him to the feed store (they said they'd take any back that had been sold as pullets) but by the time I realized he was not a she, I had fallen in love with him. And even now, when he's crowing, he's delightful.

Here he is playing TetherCabbage with one of his favorite girls, Greta.

 

[suzpyoung]

Gryeyes, that is one beautiful rooster!