Roos and hens?

[myhenSunrise]

I have five roosters, two are being either sold, or unfortunately, butchered. What I am keeping will be 1GLW, 1SLW, and 1 banty. I have 4SLW hens, 1GLW hen, 2 banty hens, 2 unknown breed hens, and 1 silkie/BO mix hen. Will that be enough hens for the three of them? None of them are really dominant yet, and hopefully I will be getting more hens next year. Also, if it's possible I will be separating the bantams from the larger chickens. Any advice?

 

[QueenMisha]

You'll see some feather loss. If any become aggressive maters you may end up with a lot of feather loss and stress will set in. I recommend seeing how it goes. It would be preferable to rehome one of the standard roos but if none become aggressive maters, you may only need to purchase hen saddles as needed.

 

[Mrs. K]

Yes, in my opinion that is too many roosters. I have had a father/son with that many hens, but both were very laid back. Most of the time, unless you have a huge amount of space inside and out of the coop, and very laid back roosters this will be a wreck.

I think realistically you should plan to get rid of two more.

Mrs K

 

[myhenSunrise]

As I said above, I am hopefully getting more hens next year, but I will most likely get rid of the SLW after I hatch some purebred chicks, same with the GLW. Given that I am intending to grow my flock. I might order some Bantys next year too, I didn't have the room or the money earlier this year but now I do, so when spring rolls around and my local hatchery is ready to sell chicks, then I will be purchasing some more chickens, most likely the typical layers so that I'll know how many hens I have. This year I ordered gold and silver wyandottes, but they only came as a straight run, so I crossed my fingers and prayed. Lol.
Was hoping for at least 6 hens, but I got lucky still with five, have sold my other GLW roo, but it seems like everyone around here wants a GLW, so the other two Roos that I have for sale, might be on the table at thanksgiving
And also, as I said above, I'm hoping to build a coop for the bantams when I can figure out some plans and talk to my dad.
I've done the math though:
Banty coop:
1roo
2hens

Big coop:
2roos
8hens

 

[myhenSunrise]

Also the bigger chickens will probably be free ranging this fall once the harvest is done they aren't allowed to be out while crop is growing because they are living at my grandparents, and my grandpa is pretty old school, so he won't put a fence around the garden :/

 

[myhenSunrise]

One thing I forgot to put in there, is that my hens and Roos that I'll be keeping are tame enough that I can bring them all out in the yard and let them graze there under my supervision. I have a big wire dog kennel that I use to keep them in so they can graze without supervision to. But when I let them out I observe them and the two Roos seem to keep to their own. Mickey( my SLW ) sticks to keeping Diamond (slw) and Hope(slw) (especially Hope) and Jace( my GLW ) keeps Clary (glw), Bella (slw) and Lily (slw) close to him.
Sometimes Jace'll even leave them with Mickey to go exploring around the deck. I also watch them in the coop and the two of them do everything together.

 

[Mrs. K]

You can try it, but have a plan and a set up available in case it does not work, because if it doesn't work, it will be a wreck right now, and you don' have time to make arrangements then. At that point you will need to pull a bird out of the set up, like yesterday.

Mrs K

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

You can try it, but have a plan and a set up available in case it does not work, because if it doesn't work, it will be a wreck right now, and you don' have time to make arrangements then. At that point you will need to pull a bird out of the set up, like yesterday.

Mrs K

Agreed - Plan B needs to be prepared now and able to be put into action in the moment, not days/weeks from the time that things begin to go badly.

 

[myhenSunrise]

Ya, we have a whole other coop in the barn that's about three times the size of the little one they are in now, I have also decided to just order some white leghorn pullets next year, my hatchery that I and other family members get their chicks from has those every year, I figured I would get about ten pullets, that leaves the bantams together and 9 hens for each roo. But back to the big coop, I have to treat it for mites because my aunt and uncles chickens, who recently got taken back to their place, had them. Fortunately it didn't spread. But once all the poop is shovelled and the dust is used, then I will put my wyandottes in there. That way they have much more room.

 

[myhenSunrise]

YIPEE!!!!
Posted some ads about looking for young laying hens at grocery store and feeds store, just got a text an hour or so ago! Going tomorrow to pick up 8 white leghorns, and 3 brahma mixes!