New here - too many roosters?

[slendsl]

Good morning! I'm new here (to posting), I've been reading posts for years. I'm not new to chickens.

My question is: can you have too many roosters?

I have 5 established, Egg laying, hens. I purchased 8 new chicks from a local farm store. They are 11 weeks old now and I am pretty sure 6 (SIX) of them are roos. So that would give me 7 hens and 6 roosters. What are the odds of getting 6 out of 8 roosters? Not great, but I did it.

I am not sure what to do with 6 roosters. We have them for eggs, not meat, so having 6 roosters is not ideal for my flock. Aren't they going to fight?

Any advice would be helpful. Thank you everyone.

 

[Lovely Lettie]

Good morning! I'm new here (to posting), I've been reading posts for years. I'm not new to chickens.

My question is: can you have too many roosters?

I have 5 established, Egg laying, hens. I purchased 8 new chicks from a local farm store. They are 11 weeks old now and I am pretty sure 6 (SIX) of them are roos. So that would give me 7 hens and 6 roosters. What are the odds of getting 6 out of 8 roosters? Not great, but I did it.

I am not sure what to do with 6 roosters. We have them for eggs, not meat, so having 6 roosters is not ideal for my flock. Aren't they going to fight?

Any advice would be helpful. Thank you everyone.

I would definitely consider getting rid of all of the roosters if you just want them for eggs, but one rooster is okay to offer extra protection for the flock.
But if you just want eggs and you don't want to breed them you might want to get rid of the roosters.

 

[NatJ]

My question is: can you have too many roosters?

Yes, you can have too many roosters, but it depends on why you have chickens and how you keep them.

I have 5 established, Egg laying, hens. I purchased 8 new chicks from a local farm store. They are 11 weeks old now and I am pretty sure 6 (SIX) of them are roos. So that would give me 7 hens and 6 roosters.

If you try to keep them all in one pen together, the hens will have bare backs from so many roosters mating with them so often.

If you put the hens in one pen and the roosters in another, that might work. Some people do keep a rooster flock (also called bachelor flock.) The males might fight or they might not, depending on their breed and their individual temperatment.

I am not sure what to do with 6 roosters. We have them for eggs, not meat, so having 6 roosters is not ideal for my flock.

Personally, I would butcher all the roosters, and just keep the hens to lay eggs.

Or give/sell the roosters to someone who wants them (most likely someone will butcher them & eat them, but then you don't have to do it yourself.)

 

[slendsl]

I would definitely consider getting rid of all of the roosters if you just want them for eggs, but one rooster is okay to offer extra protection for the flock.
But if you just want eggs and you don't want to breed them you might want to get rid of the roosters.

Thank you!

 

[slendsl]

Yes, you can have too many roosters, but it depends on why you have chickens and how you keep them.


If you try to keep them all in one pen together, the hens will have bare backs from so many roosters mating with them so often.

If you put the hens in one pen and the roosters in another, that might work. Some people do keep a rooster flock (also called bachelor flock.) The males might fight or they might not, depending on their breed and their individual temperatment.


Personally, I would butcher all the roosters, and just keep the hens to lay eggs.

Or give/sell the roosters to someone who wants them (most likely someone will butcher them & eat them, but then you don't have to do it yourself.)

I don't think I personally could butcher them. My dad said he would do it for me, if need be. We have a great smoker! I'm not opposed to butchering/ eating them. I just don't think I could do it myself. What age is a good age to butcher them? Obviously I will wait to make 100% sure they are roosters first. I'll probably keep only one, as protection in the coop, but the other 5 will need to go.

 

[NatJ]

I don't think I personally could butcher them. My dad said he would do it for me, if need be. We have a great smoker! I'm not opposed to butchering/ eating them. I just don't think I could do it myself.

I would certainly take your dad up on his offer.

I'll probably keep only one, as protection in the coop, but the other 5 will need to go.

Roosters do not provide all that much protection. They are still a chicken, and anything that likes to eat chicken is quite happy to eat male chicken or female chicken.

What age is a good age to butcher them? Obviously I will wait to make 100% sure they are roosters first.

Any time after they start to crow, or start trying to mate with females, or grow male-specific saddle feathers, or any other trait that makes you sure of their gender.

The longer you keep them, the bigger they get, but the meat also gets more tough, and they eat more food as they get bigger. So the "perfect" time varies from one person to another. Some people eat quail, and since yours are 11 weeks they are probably bigger than that already.

You can make a thread in the "What Breed or Gender?" section, and post photos, and people can help check whether they are really males. Some of the people here are really good at telling, and can point out the reasons so you can see for yourself in future.

 

[slendsl]

I would certainly take your dad up on his offer.


Roosters do not provide all that much protection. They are still a chicken, and anything that likes to eat chicken is quite happy to eat male chicken or female chicken.



Any time after they start to crow, or start trying to mate with females, or grow male-specific saddle feathers, or any other trait that makes you sure of their gender.

The longer you keep them, the bigger they get, but the meat also gets more tough, and they eat more food as they get bigger. So the "perfect" time varies from one person to another. Some people eat quail, and since yours are 11 weeks that are probably bigger than that already.

You can make a thread in the "What Breed or Gender?" section, and post photos, and people can help check whether they are really males. Some of the people here are really good at telling, and can point out the reasons so you can see for yourself in future.

I'll take some pictures tonight and do this! Main reasons though... spurs starting to grow and VERY elongated, pointy, neck feathers.

 

[Veggiegal]

I too had too many roosters and they were really abusing my hens. We had to butcher 12 today. They were easy to dispatch, feathers came out easily, but the guts,,,,,oh my, it was like someone super glued them inside the carcass. My friend who was helping me learn how to butcher them had never seen this before either. Any ideas on what caused this? We took them off food for 24 hours before so they were not full of poop, etc. but not sure what else could have caused this. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[LabMomma]

I would definitely not keep more than one rooster. You can keep one if you want to for fertilized eggs, protection, and such. But you should definitely not have more than one with that amount of hens. As a general rule of thumb, if you’re going to have more than one rooster, you want at least 10 hens per rooster