New chickens

[Michelle1312]

Hello out there,
I just got my first chickens last Friday.. built them a coop. They have water and food. I was told they are month old bantams? He said 2 are female and 2 Male and there's a smaller one we aren't sure of. I just want to know if I should get more females?
They run away from us every time we open coop door, so I am scared to free range them and not be able to bring them back in.
I don't really have a specific question more looking for advice. Can't wait to start seeing some eggs.
Thanks,!!

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Howdy! Welcome to BYC!

If you are keeping both cockerels then YES u will need more pullets. The ratio for hens to roosters should be about 10:1 so u don’t stress out your girls from over mating. If u plan on having less than 10 total chickens in your flock, then I suggest rehoming one of your boys, but not until they mature a bit so u can decide what cockerel u want to keep, based on temperament and/or breed preference. Good luck!

 

[Sg4]

Welcome and congratulations!
In my experience with free ranging, they are smart and know when to return to the coop at night. But I would recommend keeping them in the coop/run area for a couple weeks when they aren't supervised. They need to learn where home is so they don't go sleeping in nearby trees and such. At first you might have to place them in the coop to roost at night until they figure it out. But eventually they will return on their own. Make sure they don't have access to things you would prefer they not eat or scratch in

 

[Criticalicious]

If you post some pictures in the What Breed or Gender is this forum, experts on here will try to help figure out which is which.

 

[Michelle1312]

These are my chickens. All I was ts was bantams. And being new to this I have no idea where to go from here. Can i add different breed of chickens in with them as well? Thanks!

 

[aart]

The ratio for hens to roosters should be about 10:1 so u don’t stress out your girls from over mating.

The 'rooster' to hen ratio of 1:10 that is often cited is primarily for fertility efficiency in commercial breeding facilities.

It doesn't mean that if a cockbird has 10 hens that he won't abuse or over mate them.

Many breeders keep pairs, trios, quads, etc

It all depends on the temperaments of the cock and hens and sometimes housing provided.

Backyard flocks can achieve good fertility with a larger ratio.

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

The 'rooster' to hen ratio of 1:10 that is often cited is primarily for fertility efficiency in commercial breeding facilities.

It doesn't mean that if a cockbird has 10 hens that he won't abuse or over mate them.

Many breeders keep pairs, trios, quads, etc

It all depends on the temperaments of the cock and hens and sometimes housing provided.

Backyard flocks can achieve good fertility with a larger ratio.

Thank you for that clarification! It has always been in bedded in my head 10:1. I’m happier now, b/c I have 19 hens/pullets with 1 cockerel!!!!

 

[Mrs. K]

You asked for advice, however, feel free to ignore it. Many of us have been where you are, just starting with chickens and we do understand the, "Wow this is fun, I should get some more."

If you are a first year poutier I recommend:
* no roosters - roosters take some experience IMO
* if you have small children under the age of 5, I strongly recommend no roosters, they can be dangerous to small children, and seem to go from the darling to the nightmare in a moment. People love rooster chicks because they seem so friendly. But it is not that, they don't fear you, don't respect you, and expect to dominate you, and will do so by becoming aggressive. Most people new to chickens underestimate how aggressive a mean rooster can be.
* in small flocks under 7 birds, I recommend no roosters, generally roosters take more space than hens. People who have multiple roosters successfully, tend to have large flocks, multi- generational flocks where the rooster chicks were raised under grown birds in chicken society, and a lot of space. Small set ups with small flocks seem to compound any possible problems with roosters. When people keep trios, it is not full time, 365 days of the year, but just for a few weeks to get a particular mating done.

If you have bantams, then you need to stay with bantam breeds until you get the hang of it. Some people do have mixed flocks, bantams and full size birds, but often times it causes problems.

You need to measure, measure the coop, measure the roost, measure the run. Happy chickens take space. Over crowding makes for irritable flocks and ugly behavior can result. Do not think that "free ranging" in a backyard can make up for too small of coop. In the dark days of winter, they spend a long time roosted up in those long nights. Eventually you will get a number of what fits in your set up, but beware of over crowding, it causes a lot of problems.

This is a wonderful hobby, you have years to enjoy it, but work into it slowly.

MRs K

 

[Shadrach]

I think Mrs.K and aart have given you good advice.
I would add that this 10:1 ratio isn't what I would go for. Roosters have favorite hens and they'll tend to mate with their favorites the most. It doesn't make any difference how many other hens are available.
If you decide to keep the rooters, (I agree with Mrs.K here, they would need at least to be free range and cockerels learn good behavior from senior cocks, it's much more difficult if you have to teach them) then a ratio of 4:1 is what i would go for.

 

[Ridgerunner]

We love our magic numbers, don't we. I'll throw out another magic ratio I've seen on here a lot, for bantams you need 12 to 15 hens per rooster. But as Aart said, this ratio is for the commercial breeding facilities that use the pen breeding method and is all about fertility. It doesn't have anything to do with stressed out hens, barebacked hens, or roosters fighting. They've found with that ratio they tend to have all fertile eggs. If you don't use the pen breeding method it doesn't have that much to do with fertility in our flocks.

I don't know why you want roosters. The only reason you need one is if you want fertile eggs. Everything else is just personal preference. Some people love them, some don't want a rooster anywhere near their flock. I always suggest you keep as few roosters as you can and still meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed problems with more roosters, just that problems are more likely.

I don't know if you should get more females or not. What are your goals, why do you want chickens? Especially how much room do you have, coop and run or outside. If you are already overcrowded getting more chickens will make it worse, not better. The more room you have the better the chances are that those two males will get along instead of killing each other. There are no guarantees that the roosters will or will not kill each other whether you have less or more space, but your odds of success increase as your room gets bigger. Same is true for whether or not your hens will be over-bred. The more room you have the better your odds on avoiding any behavioral problem or reducing their severity.

You can try keeping both those males but I'd have a plan B ready so I could quickly separate one or both of those from the pullets/hens. I'd base my decisions on my goals first but also on the behaviors I see.

You don't get guarantees with any behavior with any living animal, but we can tell you what we normally expect. If you house the chickens in the coop or coop/run for a week or more, they should get in the habit of sleeping there, not in a tree somewhere. I strongly suggest that if you have enough room.

Something else I suggest, bribery. Bribery works. You say they run from you. Start feeding them a treat, maybe corn, meal worms, especially BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds) out of a bucket you can sort of rattle while you chant something, maybe "here chicky chicky". They probably will not fly up on your shoulders or let you pick them up, but they should soon learn treats are available so they will run toward you, not away from you. That can be handy in getting them in the coop or run if you need to.

It is a great hobby. We all have our own ways of doing things and as you can tell we have our opinions. We all have different goals, different set-ups, and different experiences. You'll soon figure out what works for you.