So I have recently started my own flock...lol...it started as just wanting egg layers to feed my family, but now I'm chicken obsessed and love them all. My fiance is working on finishing up the coop which is 12 x 24 with a run that is 24 x 48 attached to it. Here's what I have: 11 - 9 week old EE's - 2 of which are Roo's 11 - 9 week old SLW's - Not sure yet if any are Roo's 2 - 9 week old Brit Red Pullets 3 - 7 week old Golden Sex Link Pullets 1 - 9 week old Silkie/EE Roo 1 - 9 week old White Crested Blue Polish Roo 7 - 1 week old Bantam Chicks (gender and breed undetermined) 3 - 1 week old RIR (supposed to be pullets) 1 - 9 week old Guinea...long story, my song thought it was a chicken, we found out later it wasn't So, my questions...lol Do I have too many Roo's? Are my coop size and run large enough? Are these decent layers? (I realize the Bantams are little, but they were so cute I couldn't resist them ) Will I need to separate the Roo's as they get older or can they all stay together? And last one for now...how many nesting boxes do I need in my coop? One for each hen?
My rule of thumb is one roo per 10 pullets, one nestbox per 4-5 pullets, and I''m guessing when the birds are about a year old, you'll start thinking about enlarging the run. It'll probably be fine for them until then, but they'll decimate the grass by then, so you'll want to give them a second run that size and rotate them between the two to keep them from making large mud flats. We have 2 pop doors and close one side down occasionally to let birdseed and wheat and scratch grow up for a bit. You have some great layers in there and will end up getting 2 doz a day in about 6 months, so prepare to swim in eggs! As far as the roos go, you may have some really active roos or not- I have some very...casual guys who don't wear my girls out at all, and in some pens a single guy to 10 girls isn't fair and he runs them ragged. You'll know more as time goes on, and it may work out well.
