Rooster : Hen ratio

[Nutmeg101]

I have 6 hens and 1 roo. (We bought sexed chicks.... We were that 5% and got a roo). Keeping him as long as he isn't aggressive with my kids.

is 6 girls enough? I'm not really looking to get more, but I don't want problems.

 

[NemerLuvPoultry]

1 rooster shouldn't be a problem at all...just don't get any more roosters

 

[lightchick]

No, that's a good ratio. From what I looked up one person said 5-6 hen per roo and another 6-8.
I'd say you have it perfectly balanced.

 

[tatinatimom]

How many hens should you have for 2 roos? We have 13 chickens and 2 have ended up being roos. Will they be able to live together? I am new to keeping chickens and had only planned to have hens. Now my 2 favorite "hens", of course, have ended up being my roos!

 

[Nutmeg101]

The one I have wasn't planned ;-) and as long as my 6 are in fact hens....

 

[NemerLuvPoultry]

How many hens should you have for 2 roos? We have 13 chickens and 2 have ended up being roos. Will they be able to live together? I am new to keeping chickens and had only planned to have hens. Now my 2 favorite "hens", of course, have ended up being my roos!

I would say that you are okay for the time being. They may or may not be able to get along. I have had both outcomes with my experience. As they get older though they may get more aggressive towards one another... So just keep an eye on them

 

[One Chick Two]

The signs are sounding to me like your roos may be able to live together, but def watch for fighting and other unhappiness. They will be peaceful and help each other with the girls, and even sleep together some nights if they get along.

We've had as many as 15 roos in with 100 hens (free rangers) at a time. They all got along. We had to thin a few roos, only just because at night a few lower ranking roos would over-mate the girls and they lost feathers. No one got aggressive or fought.

Try not to worry too much yet-- not all roos end up becoming mean. Some are genetically disposed to being mean, or, become unhappy with something environmental- or may need more hens- just watch for this. Not a whole lot you can do about genetics if they come into play.

Some of our very favorite birds are older roos. The bantam in my avatar helped to raise the 17 roos and hens- he liked them, and was amazing to watch train all the youngsters how to act in a flock. We socialize with our roos daily, and as a whole, they seem balanced.

 

[tatinatimom]

Will a roo be mean or aggressive to the hens or will I only need to worry how the roos are towards each other and humans?

 

[One Chick Two]

Will a roo be mean or aggressive to the hens or will I only need to worry how the roos are towards each other and humans?

It's been our experience that our roos are good to their ladies. Others may have had different experiences. Hens will on occasion fight each other, and sometimes roos will step in to break up petty bickering. Hens can get annoyed and cranky once in awhile as well.

Sometimes you can get a virile and clumsy young roo who will pull out feathers from the back of a hen's neck, and wear off back feathers and wing feathers. He is probably not aggressive persay, but just showing you he may have favorites, or, may need a few more hens. Some roos have great manners and dance for the ladies before mating, and will even short themselves of food to feed their ladies. We had two roo in particulars who are spectacularly good to their ladies, and they laid inside the brand new nest boxes to tell their hens it was a good place to lay eggs, lol. Both of them like human companionhip.

There are no set rules for roos, so, you never know what you're going to get.

You just need to watch your birds and determine occasionally-- did he just peck the other roo just from annoyance (passing) or experimental (bug?), or, is this a building aggression?

 

[tatinatimom]

Thanks for your help! We weren't planning to have any roos in our flock when we decided to keep chickens. This is a new hobby per say for us. We have always wanted chickens just didn't live where we could accommodate them until now. We have no idea what to expect as far as behavior with just hens themselves let alone adding roos. We are trying to integrate 2 flocks into one which adds to our mix as well. I told my hubby we need someone here with us to explain behavior and let us know what is normal. We noticed our mutt bantam cochin roo tends to pick on the younger hens when we put them together.
& to top it off this morning we discovered we now have another hen turned roo. He was trying to crow this morning but it sounded more like he was choking LOL. Ugghh