My family does not care that my roo needs a minimum of 5-6 hens 😔

[talkinboutchickens]

Hi guys. Welp despite my family knowing that I research about chickens a lot, they don't trust that my rooster Benny needs at least 5 girls.
He has been with only 3 girls (sometimes as little as 1 hen, when the other 2 decide they want to move to the big coop) for a few months and I keep telling everyone that that's not good for the hens and that Benny needs at least 5 girls (if not more.) I understand that the recommended amount is AT LEAST 6 to 8 but with the amount of space we're working with, 5 it's gonna be- however, my family is still being stingy with the ratio of 5 to 1
So this all came up when the other day I reminded everyone that we are getting 7 new chicks total. They were like "seven??!!" And I was like "yeah, we already talked about this." So apparently they don't even remember the conversation we had and they think I'm lying just to get more chicks than we had originally planned.
(Oh and also a bit of a backstory, the plan is to add 5 new chickens to our biggest coop, and 2 more to the small coop to make a total of 7 new chicks altogether.)

Sorry for the rant, but I'm trying to stick up for my hens because I understand that we'll have to build yet another coop for Benny or get rid of him if he does not have enough girls because it puts a lot of stress on the hens!

Is it possible that you guys can help me stick up for my hens and say that Benny NEEDS more hens? I'm not trying to get you guys to convince my parents that we need more chickens just because I want more. I would never do that because I understand the need for chickens to have enough space and to be happy. I just truly believe that how we're forcing a tiny amount of girls to be with one roo is not humane whatsoever. And also if you had this question, no I'm not able to move hens from the bigger coop to the smaller coop because they already get along so well in there and I don't want to ruin the pecking order for them. Plus doing that will make Ledo, our other rooster, not have enough hens lol so basically it's counterintuitive at that point.
Thank you so much for reading this, I know it's really long but I just don't get how my family doesn't understand my argument. I feel very unheard and like no one cares about our chickens or the need to have a better hen to rooster ratio

 

[Fallenone05]

I would put it bluntly ;

Our rooster can and will overmate our hens to actual death. He needs more options to choose from than just one hen, as he can and will over breed her to death.

 

[Triscuit6]

Yes, you definitely should have more than 3 girls with your rooster. The recommended amount is 7-13 hens per rooster. We originally had our rooster with two hens (just until we integrated them into our larger flock), and I noticed a huge difference in his behavior when we put him with our 14 others. Your rooster needs many hens to mate with, otherwise he can hurt and even kill them. You should consider getting a few more hens to reduce aggression and to have a happy rooster and flock.

 

[Amer]

Are the hens getting overbred and stressed and missing lots of feathers on the back? Then you have a very good argument to bring them.
If the hens are doing fine, however, it's okay to have fewer than the recommended ratio.
Especially if you only have one rooster. The stress on hens is often due to roosters competing for them.
With my bantams, I will often just keep a pair together and they'll be just fine. But bantams tend to be gentler. However, one bantam that I had I always kept separate from everyone because he didn't get along with anyone, male or female. One hen just about tolerated him so I kept them together sometimes. It's based on the individual situation.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Are the hens getting overbred and stressed and missing lots of feathers on the back? Then you have a very good argument to bring them.
If the hens are doing fine, however, it's okay to have fewer than the recommended ratio.
Especially if you only have one rooster. The stress on hens is often due to roosters competing for them.
With my bantams, I will often just keep a pair together and they'll be just fine. But bantams tend to be gentler. However, one bantam that I had I always kept separate from everyone because he didn't get along with anyone, male or female. One hen just about tolerated him so I kept them together sometimes. It's based on the individual situation.

Her feathers are fine but I'm just worried that he'll still overmate her (and yes there is only 1 girl in there right now unfortunately bc the other 2 decided they like the other coop better UGH.)

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Yes, you definitely should have more than 3 girls with your rooster. The recommended amount is 7-13 hens per rooster. We originally had our rooster with two hens (just until we integrated them into our larger flock), and I noticed a huge difference in his behavior when we put him with our 14 others. Your rooster needs many hens to mate with, otherwise he can hurt and even kill them. You should consider getting a few more hens to reduce aggression and to have a happy rooster and flock.

I would put it bluntly ;

Our rooster can and will overmate our hens to actual death. He needs more options to choose from than just one hen, as he can and will over breed her to death.

Thank you guys, I will tell them that Hopefully they will have a change of heart.

 

[Klutch]

So you mentioned the hens can just move on their own free will, but one hen is putting up with him. So what is the problem, why doesn't the lone hen move out also. A rooster can be content with one hen also, especially if he doesn't have competition. Where he needs to push his genes in face of another rooster. Do you really think number are right and balanced in the wild/feral.