Rooster ratios

[slordaz]

it all depends on the individual birds in your flock, some times I'd end up with 10-12 hens and 2 roosters and they did fine. one time ended up with 21 hens and 3 roosters , and one of them thought it was funny to start crowing wars at 3 am then he'd go back to the coop, so he found a new home. the remaining new roo was to aggressive even after hormones leveled out, with the hens and went bye bye too. Now day my older rooster is scared to see new ones put in the isolation pen he was happy with 5 and now he's got 18 to deal with on his own and when hens get on one he goes and hides in the coop.

 

[SamanthaDianne]

Does the large coop have nests?
So you have 2 pre fabs?
They are terrible for main coops, but sure are handy for isolation coops!

The large coop does not have a nesting box yet. We just have the 6 in the smaller prefab coops that they use which had worked out fine up until now. I want to order one of the best best boxes to mount in the large a-frame coop but I’m having a hard time committing to it bc it’s one of the more expensive ones but I like the idea of it lol

 

[SamanthaDianne]

You really have cockerels and pullets, unless your older birds are from 2018. So, all youngsters. This may or may not work out, and you might find that some of your boys turn into jerks as they mature. Have that Plan B ready!
In spring, when they are more mature, and hormones are running high, be ready for interesting times, maybe.
Also, if you plan to raise chicks from your flock, pick the boy or boys who will produce the type of chicks you are interested in having. And remember that half or more of them will be cockerels!!!
Very few cockerels are actually worth keeping as breeders, and you most are meant to be dinner for a family.
Mary

We just have the one rooster with the hens and one but more than likely two cockerels with the pullets. I don’t plan on hatching any out for the next couple years because we are about at full capacity lol Darrell our rooster had a limp yesterday morning when I went out to do the morning check! He’s still hopping around today. I’m hoping it’s nothing serious bc he’s still trying his damnedest to mount so I’m hoping when we get back after thanksgiving he’s better.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sometimes hatcheries add an extra chick or two to get the numbers up where they can help keep them all warm during shipping. These are called "packing peanuts" and are practically always male. Most people want pullets so they have a lot of extra males.

I did have one hatchery send an extra pullet of a breed I had ordered all pullets. They had some extras and decided to add one to my order for public relations and to keep me happy if something happened to one. That doesn't happen often, yours is probably male if you think it is. The harsh reality is that any chicks they don't ship will be killed.

There is no magic male-female ratio. You can have the same issues with one rooster and 25 hens as you can have with one rooster and 2 hens. Or they may be great with those ratios. Adding more females will not prevent roosters from fighting, over-mating, or otherwise stressing the hens. You can often keep two or more roosters together in bachelor pens if there are no hens to fight over but they will fight over one or twenty hens.

It is possible two or more roosters will reach an accommodation on how to work together and take care of the flock. Or they may fight to the death. To me the main things that determine which they do is the personalities of the individual roosters and how much room they have. Some roosters have the personality that they will fight to the death, even if it is their own death. Others are more open to accommodation even if they win.

Often in these fights one fairly quickly decides it is better to run away instead of continuing to fight. These fights are more about running away and chasing rather than trying to kill each other. And then they try to avoid the winner. If they don't have enough room to run away they can't get away and if they don't have enough room to avoid they can't avoid. I'm not talking about that 10 square feet per chicken in the run you often see on here. I'm talking about enough room that they can actually avoid each other. It's not always necessary but it's better if they can get out of sight of each other.

This is all about mature roosters. You have another issue, yours have to go through puberty. The cockerels' hormones are going to be running wild. They won't have much self control. They may fight each other some but maybe not that much. But they will almost certainly mate the pullets against their will. That's not really about sex, it's about dominance but it can be really hard to watch. It can be very violent. This is when a place to isolate one or both of those cockerels on short notice can really come in handy.

 

[SamanthaDianne]

Sometimes hatcheries add an extra chick or two to get the numbers up where they can help keep them all warm during shipping. These are called "packing peanuts" and are practically always male. Most people want pullets so they have a lot of extra males.

I did have one hatchery send an extra pullet of a breed I had ordered all pullets. They had some extras and decided to add one to my order for public relations and to keep me happy if something happened to one. That doesn't happen often, yours is probably male if you think it is. The harsh reality is that any chicks they don't ship will be killed.

There is no magic male-female ratio. You can have the same issues with one rooster and 25 hens as you can have with one rooster and 2 hens. Or they may be great with those ratios. Adding more females will not prevent roosters from fighting, over-mating, or otherwise stressing the hens. You can often keep two or more roosters together in bachelor pens if there are no hens to fight over but they will fight over one or twenty hens.

It is possible two or more roosters will reach an accommodation on how to work together and take care of the flock. Or they may fight to the death. To me the main things that determine which they do is the personalities of the individual roosters and how much room they have. Some roosters have the personality that they will fight to the death, even if it is their own death. Others are more open to accommodation even if they win.

Often in these fights one fairly quickly decides it is better to run away instead of continuing to fight. These fights are more about running away and chasing rather than trying to kill each other. And then they try to avoid the winner. If they don't have enough room to run away they can't get away and if they don't have enough room to avoid they can't avoid. I'm not talking about that 10 square feet per chicken in the run you often see on here. I'm talking about enough room that they can actually avoid each other. It's not always necessary but it's better if they can get out of sight of each other.

This is all about mature roosters. You have another issue, yours have to go through puberty. The cockerels' hormones are going to be running wild. They won't have much self control. They may fight each other some but maybe not that much. But they will almost certainly mate the pullets against their will. That's not really about sex, it's about dominance but it can be really hard to watch. It can be very violent. This is when a place to isolate one or both of those cockerels on short notice can really come in handy.

See that’s what I am not looking forward to. My husband was convinced we needed to add another rooster when we ordered this batch and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. If they are aggressive I’ll just have to give them the boot. We lucked out when we got our first one and his temperament is great. He never shows aggression towards my son or I and he only tries to mate with the laying hens and doesn’t give the non-laying older girls a second look. We will see how it goes and they will either fall in line or move on out.

 

[Mrs. K]

A huge influence will be space + a big dose of luck. Plan B set up and ready to go the instant it goes south needs to be ready. A sharp knife and the ability to dispatch a poor rooster. You cannot wish them nice.

When you take on hens almost all of them work, when you take on roosters, a lot of them will not work. It is easier to increase the odds of them not working:

• not enough space, roosters need more space than hens, more roosters mean a lot more space
• not enough hens
• too much aggression between roosters, between roosters and hens, between roosters and pullets
• small young children - under six, strong possibility of taking an aggressive rooster at face level.

When people say they never have aggressive roosters they almost always have a pretty large more traditional farm flock, not a small backyard flock. They almost always have multiple barn or large shed size coops and multiple runs set up. They almost always have a multi-generational flock, that they have been raising for years, and have a great deal of experience and confidence around the birds. Roosters take experience.

Mrs K

 

[cmom]

Since you aren't breeding to hatch it really doesn't matter as long as they get along or tolerate each other. I would definitely have a plan B in place. I have 5 breeds with 2 males for breeders for each breed a male and a spare. I have had as few as 2 females with a breeding male and as many as 10 females to a male but mostly 5 or 6 females to a male. the males start acting like assholes then I separate them and put them in bachelor coops and pens. I do hatch out my own chicks so around half will be male. I have had some exceptions where I have hatched more females than males and other times more males than females. I have processed some of the extra males but now I sell them to help offset the cost of the feed.

As @Mrs. K said:

When people say they never have aggressive roosters they almost always have a pretty large more traditional farm flock, not a small backyard flock. They almost always have multiple barn or large shed size coops and multiple runs set up. They almost always have a multi-generational flock, that they have been raising for years, and have a great deal of experience and confidence around the birds. Roosters take experience.

Mrs K

I have a traditional farm flock with breeds I have been breeding for years with multiple coops and pens. I have had a few really jerk males over the years. They either went to auction or were sold with the information on what jerks they were that I have either given away or sold cheaply to someone who wanted the breed, since I do have specific breeds and lines. Most of the males have been sweethearts but I have raised them from hatch. Good luck and have fun...