New ? about roosters

[ShaggysGirl]

Hi
I'm new here and new to raising chickens. We are waiting on our first chicks to come we are getting 10 Pullets and 5 Cockerels. The hatchery we ordered from those were the least you could order. The 10 Hens are ok but 5 roosters.... how many hens per rooster is the rule?
Should I keep alll or one or two?
Any help is apreciated.
thanks
Rhonda

 

[Imp]

from Washington

I usually read here that 1 roo per 10 hens.

Imp- but I'm rooless

 

[patandchickens]

The answer depends a bit on whether you mean "to ensure fertile eggs from all the hens" or whether you mean "to avoid having the hens get excessively bare-backed from overmating". But it's generally considered to be somewhere in the vicinity of one roo per 8-12 hens.

They can still wear the feathers off their favorites, though, even if there are theoretically plenty hens to go around.

So, you'll want to maybe get rid of all but your two most-preferred cockerels, then as those two mature you can decide which one to keep (at some point there is a pretty good choice they will start seriously fighting and someone will have to go... although there are exceptions, especially if they have huge amounts of space)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[ShaggysGirl]

Thank you for the info. That sounds like a plan