Question - 5 rooster 6 hens - Can it work with that ratio

[Happy Chooks]

Your hens would be terribly overmated. Not to mention your hens would be so stressed out, they could quit laying.

I have 2 roosters in with 14 hens and I have a couple of girls with feathers missing from their heads, but no bare backs. They're about to be separated though and 1 rooster will go live in my new coop with half of the girls. I wouldn't go any less than 1 rooster to 5 hens and that would only be for ensuring fertility in a breeder pen.

 

[Mortos]

I am trying to get to a more self sustaining lifestyle and I want to get to a point where I can breed and harvest chickens to eat as well as have plenty of eggs. I tell my daughter it is hypocritical to eat meat and remove yourself completely from the killing process but that is easier said than done. It's really hard to pick which ones to slaughter. I guess it will just have to be the smaller of the BR's and the Silver Laced Wyandotte. I will keep the bantam cochin and the larger BR to see if we can make that work. I would eventually like about 12 more hens. I previously had all 8 hens and no roosters and everyone did just fine.

 

[CMV]

Quote:
Give it a few months and it will get much easier. Pick out the least aggressive one to keep. In the meanwhile, I'd build a bachelor pad for the boys. If you are aiming towards self-sufficiency then you are going to need more than one coop. One for layers, one for meaties, one for waterfowl, a hospital ward for convalescing birds, a broody pen...Yes, I am an enabler.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
It's easier when you tell yourself all roosters from a hatch will be dinner. You force yourself not to get attached. Get attached to the hens all you want, but you keep the roosters at a distance. I tell my kids that the roosters are dinner as well.

We started eating our excess roosters because we felt the same way. A chicken from the store still has to die, it's just you don't have to see it. We too felt hypocritical and wanted to know how to provide our own food. (not to mention hormone and antibiotic free meat) Is the killing part difficult - of course it is, in fact the first time I was shaking so violently I had a hard time controlling myself and my step dad was the one doing the whacking to show us how. (he grew up on a chicken farm) The killing part is still very hard on me (and my DH), but I have no trouble plucking, cleaning, etc once it's dead. Neither DH or myself were raised in a hunting environment, which I feel makes it more difficult on us.

 

[Jabbok]

Oh I am SO GLAD to read this post!! I have 4 roosters and 4 hens (I have 8 more hens, but they are small and in a separate cage) and I feel SO BAD for the hens. One rooster was trying to mate with a hen on the perch last night. I'm thinking we're going to have some fresh chicken meat soon. We'll keep one rooster. The rest have to go.

 

[BigIslandChicks]

i currently have to 2 BR roos that are just maturing, i have 9 hens, 2 (1 game, 1 wh. leghorn) that are over a year and 7 hens (25+weeks) that should all be laying soon. my roos where raised together and i have had them since the end of aug. the boys get along really good. i hope that things stay that way. but today for the 1st time i saw

them both hold down the leghorn and take a turn...is this normal?? they are spreading around the love to the other ladies but should i worry about this behavior??

is it ok as long as the boys dont fight?? i am worried about them over workin "whitey", but it seems like the boys are going to the other hens as well. they are both young and just now starting to get their technique down. whitey is a leghorn so she has always been a little high strung...i also have 2 young pullets and am planning on getting a few month old pullets for christmas and i saw someone is moving and has 40 hens that need homes that are all of laying age, some wellsummers and barnivelders that im gonna try to get for the boys to share...i dont really have the space to have 2 separate coops/flocks. and getting rid of 1 is not really an option, as long as their not hurting the hens and fighting is this ok??

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
No it's not okay. Get rid of one of the boys. Or both, doesn't sound like either one is a gentleman. You want roosters that treat the hens well. They can injure her and/or kill her with this behavior.

I had 2 roosters in the same pen and they NEVER ganged up on the hens.

 

[Baralak]

Quote:
Those BR Cock's are very nice looking.. I have 2 BR Pullets, wish I had a BR roo to go with them.. but I already have 2 roos. Of course one don't count, he's a serama.. that would be a funny sight watching Truffles try to mount a full grown Pullet!..lol

 

[BigIslandChicks]

Quote:
No it's not okay. Get rid of one of the boys. Or both, doesn't sound like either one is a gentleman. You want roosters that treat the hens well. They can injure her and/or kill her with this behavior.

I had 2 roosters in the same pen and they NEVER ganged up on the hens.

this is probably the worst thing i could hear....

i really hope that the boys do not continue with this kind of behavior... i dont know what ill do.....

please help... is there anything that i can do to try to keep them from doing this????