Rooster to hen ratio

[MysteryChicken]

Is there a specific brand/type of hen saddle you recommend?

Yes, it's double strap, reflective, & is velcro. The girls are less likely to wiggle out of it.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

What exactly do I need to watch for when you say “overmating” ... are you referring to how the chickens body is appearing... loss of feathers on back, head, etc.

Yes. Hens will start looking ragged and showing bare backs and possibly bare heads

 

[Sea Wolf]

Do hen saddles help with the stress caused by overmating?

They can because they prevent the hen from being injured. Sometimes, the rooster might have one or two "favorites" that get really torn up. Saddles would help.

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

They can because they prevent the hen from being injured. Sometimes, the rooster might have one or two "favorites" that get really torn up. Saddles would help.

Again, "help" is a keyword here. They won't completely stop the damage, but they will help. And signs of over-mating are plucked out feathers, bloody head or back, etc.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This implies to me that you are talking about several hens and multiple roosters, not one rooster with fewer hens. I'm not sure though. It's easier for me to talk about this stuff if I know where you are coming from. That way I'm talking more about your situation than some hypothetical that may have no bearing on you.

I understand the correct ratio is 1 rooster for 10 hens

Not really. That ratio comes from hatcheries where lots of fertile eggs is the goal. They have learned that with some flocks a ratio of around 10 to 1 pretty much assures that all the eggs will be fertile. But they are not married to that ratio. They test fertility and adjust the number of roosters up or down based on the results. They don't want to house and feed any more roosters with the girls than they have to. With some other flocks their best ratio may be 12 to 1 or even 15 to 1, especially for bantams. That has nothing to do with roosters fighting or hen being over-mated or injured. It's purely about fertility and egg production in the pen breeding system most hatcheries use. In different breeding systems different ratios work.

... what happens if you have more roosters than the specific ratio.

There is no way to know. Often nothing really different. If roosters are going to fight over the girls they'll fight over 30 hens as quickly and as viciously as they will over 3. People with one rooster with 20 hens or more can have barebacked hens or over-mating issues, just like people with one rooster and a very small number of hens may have no issues.

Each chicken is an individual, boy or girl. Each flock has its own dynamics. Those dynamics can be changed by adding or removing one bird, especially if it is a relatively dominant bird, boy or girl. I firmly believe the more room they have the more likely you are to have fewer problems. The more crowded they are the more behavioral problems are magnified. Age and maturity levels can strongly affect how they behave. There can be a world of difference between the behaviors of immature cockerels and pullets versus mature roosters and hens. Typically immature cockerels and to a certain extent pullets don't have the control mature chickens do. Often things get really wild during adolescence but calm down a lot if they can get through that to maturity. I believe a lot of the horror stories you read about on this forum are with flocks of immature birds, not mature birds, but you can get mature birds that never really grow up.

Does it affect egg production, cause stress, etc. Any input would be appreciated!

Any flock, whether it is all girls or has some boys mixed in will do OK if it is a peaceful flock. Some all girl flocks can be pretty stressful, you read about them on this forum. They may be crowded or have a hen that is just a pain in the rear. A stressed flock can have reduced egg laying and have other issues. Having roosters does not guarantee a stressful flock. Not having roosters does not guarantee an unstressed flock. Each of us is unique, we are not always going to get the same results.

What exactly do I need to watch for when you say “overmating” ... are you referring to how the chickens body is appearing... loss of feathers on back, head, etc.

This can mean different things. Some feather loss during mating is normal. Don't get concerned if you see an occasional feather fly away. The danger comes in when you see bare patches. Their claws are pretty sharp and can cut bare skin. Part of the mating act is when the rooster grabs the back of the hen's head. This is her signal to raise her tail out of the way so he can hit the target. There would be no fertile eggs without the head grab. This is another place where you need to watch for bare skin, the back of the head, and saddles do nothing for that.

This type of issue is more prevalent with immature cockerels and pullets going through puberty. The young boys may not have the best technique. The girls often resist and the hormone driven boys can get violent and force them. Those hormones can make the boys really active. Sometimes the presence of other rivals spurs the boys on to bad behavior, sometimes if one becomes clearly dominant he will suppress some of that behavior from the other boys. This kind of stuff can still happen with mature birds but watching immature cockerels and pullets go through puberty may not be for the weak of heart.

Some pullets and hens are more subject to feather loss than others. Even if the boy is really gentle they can get bare backs. When I started I had a flock of one boy and eight girls. Two girls developed bare backs so I ate them. That reduces my ratio from 8 to 1 to 6 to 1 and the problem went away. I figured those girls were the problem. With the new worse ratio I had no more problems. How could I blame the boy when removing the girls solved the problem?

Something else that can happen, especially with adolescents, is that the boys are so active mating the girls that the girls stay away. I have seen pullets spend the day in the coop, mostly on the roost, instead of out foraging with the boys. I hatch and raise a bunch of chicks with the flock. Sometimes there are more boys, sometimes more girls. I've noticed that the ratio of boys to girls doesn't matter, it comes down to the attitude of the chickens themselves. About every three or four years I'll isolate the boys away from the flock until they grow to butcher age. This behavior is a sign that the girls are stressed. I don't see this behavior with my adult flock, just my juveniles. But I'm sure others have.

Do hen saddles help with the stress caused by overmating?

Saddles can help protect against feather loss on the back or the girls being cut by the boys claws in those bare spots. So they help protect them from injury. They won't protect them against stress and do not protect the back of the head. If bare backs is your problem then saddles can be a useful tool.

What are your goals with the boys? The only reason you need males is if you want fertile eggs. Everything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with that, I have a few myself. I generally suggest that you keep as few boys as you can and still meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed problems with more boys but that problems are more likely. If you want more you may need to come up with different housing or management but you can make it work.