My kids are in 4H and the last couple of years we used our schools poultry barn to house chickens. Now we're going to house them ourselves. We are going to have 6 Dutch bantams. All of our breeders sell them as a pair so we will have 3 pullets and 3 cockerels. I'm guessing the cockerels will eventually start to fight. If I keep them as pairs and separated would the one hen be enough for one rooster? I thought about getting rid of the cockerels and having 5 pullets with 1 cockerel but I didn't want to mix varieties. They are currently paired by their color variety.
It all depends upon the nature of the cockerel. For some one hen may not result in overbreeding and feather problems. I once bred and showed light brown leghorn bantams. I generally trio bred with no feather damage to the hens. Lighter weight birds generally cause fewer problems than the larger/heavier birds.
