rooster to hen ratio

[kuntrygirl]

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Large diaper pins? Cool. I'm on my way to Ebay now. I don't like seeing my girls with bald backs. It saddens me.

Thanks for the info. I appreciate that.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What size of chicken? For full sized chickens, the normal ratio is around 10 to 12 hens for each rooster, but for bantams the ratio is more like 12 to 15 per rooster. Age and vitality enters into it too. A younger rooster will do a better job of mating with the hens. Health an nutrition also play a part. At commercial hatcheries, they use a ratio of around 10 to 1 and replace older roosters when fertility drops.

It is not that a rooster mates with each and every one of his hens every day. After a mating, hens normally stay fertile for about 2 weeks. Some less and some more.

Often one rooster can keep 20 hens fertile, especially a young, healthy, energetic rooster. But sometimes one rooster will not keep 5 hens fertile. That's where the average ratios come in. The good performers compensate for the poor performers.

 

[humpty2dumpty]

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Yes, I will be keeping them for eggs. I see people having battery-caged eggs and this literally worries me! cage-free eggs are way way better than the battery-caged ones. That's the reason I plan to sell these eggs in local markets. cage-free eggs aren't available here in South-Asian region. So I think I should get started with 200 chickens.

 

[humpty2dumpty]

Thanks a lot people

got some really good advice from all

 

[kuntrygirl]

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Way to go!

Good luck with them. You will love having that many chickens. I wish that I could have 300. Did I say 300?

ETA: If you don't plan on hatching any eggs, then you really don't need any roosters. If your hens will be strictly for eggs, then I wouldn't worry about getting any roosters. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[humpty2dumpty]

ETA: If you don't plan on hatching any eggs, then you really don't need any roosters. If your hens will be strictly for eggs, then I wouldn't worry about getting any roosters. Just my 2 cents worth.

Why? How are the hens going to produce eggs if there are no roosters?​

 

[donrae]

Might I respecfully suggest you do a lot more research before you jump into such a large number of hens? The knowledge that hens don't need roosters to lay eggs is pretty basic to chicken keeping. A hen will lay eggs without a rooster.
All he does is fertilize the egg so, if brooded, it could develop into a baby chick. Just like female mammals release an egg every month (humans), regardless of having a man around. The man would just be there to fertilize the egg.
Please, read a LOT on this site and/or books on keeping chickens. And maybe start smaller, to be sure you have a market for your eggs, a good feed supply, adequate shelter/ predator protection. I'm thinking that many eggs a day would be quite a chore to collect, then you have to store 180+ eggs a day until you sell them, and keep track to rotate them so you don't wind up with old, bad eggs stuck in the back somewhere

 

[kuntrygirl]

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Why? How are the hens going to produce eggs if there are no roosters?

HUH? Seriously? Really? Is that a joke question? Seriously?

You must be VERY new to chickens. You don't need a rooster to get eggs from a hen. No one told you that.

 

[kuntrygirl]

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I agree 110%.

 

[rsf31tmp]

I have one coop with all birds together. 18 hens with three roos. Very little trouble and I am sure all my hens are taken care of every day. I have lost three hens in the last 5 months. One died, dog got one and one is a mystery. I think I coud have another 10-12 hens and be fine.