Roosters

[Farmgirl59]

I am new to raising laying hens. I purchased 20 birds of which 5 were to be roosters. Well turns out that 7 are roosters. So far they are all getting along however can someone tell me how many roosters per hen I should have? Any downside to keeping that many? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
With twelve pullets, you really should only keep one or maybe two cockerels. Having five in a separate flock is possible, but moving them on would be good instead. On the other hand, being new to chickens, moving all those cockerels on might be better for everyone this year!
Next spring you can start some straight run chicks, and your adult hens will help raise them, and you will have more experience, all good.
Mary

 

[keesmom]

I am new to raising laying hens. I purchased 20 birds of which 5 were to be roosters. Well turns out that 7 are roosters. So far they are all getting along however can someone tell me how many roosters per hen I should have? Any downside to keeping that many? Thanks in advance for any help.

If they are still getting along I'm going to guess they are still around 12-14 weeks of age. With 5 hormonal cockerels and only 13 pullets there's a whole lot that can go wrong especially if you have them in a confined area. When their hormones kick in it could get ugly. With your number of pullets one cockerel would be plenty, and unless you want to hatch you don't need any of them.

Either set up another whole coop/run for the males or rehome/cull them.

 

[Folly's place]

Different blends work, until they don't, and there's no perfect answer for every situation. However, seven cockerels with thirteen,pullets just isn't likely to be good, especially for the pullets.
For every pullet hatched there's going to be a cockerel, and expecting every one of them to live long somewhere is just not how things work. Out there in the jungle, with wild jungle fowl, predators help manage the group. Here, with domestic birds in confined situations, adjustments need to be made, and many cockerels do get invited to dinner.
Those birds at the grocery store didn't have as nice a life as many birds have in our flocks! Providing food for a family is not a bad thing, IMO.
Some extra cockerels may find homes in another flock, and that's great. Many of us don't have either the space or interest in having every cockerel ever hatched in separate housing, and that's fine too.
Anyone who hatches chicks will have 50% cockerels, so be prepared for them too.
Mary

 

[Finnie]

Welcome!
With twelve pullets, you really should only keep one or maybe two cockerels. Having five in a separate flock is possible, but moving them on would be good instead. On the other hand, being new to chickens, moving all those cockerels on might be better for everyone this year!
Next spring you can start some straight run chicks, and your adult hens will help raise them, and you will have more experience, all good.
Mary

I agree. For a new chicken keeper, this would make things easier until more experience is gained.

It may be a bit more work, but, it is hard to rehome roosters, especially 5, and thinly other solution to "moving them on" would be culling them, and that is just sad. They would thank you for it if you kept them in a rooster flock, and i've had friends who has started a rooster flock right toff the bat with new chickens, and everything is working out fine! What every you wan to do, Avery

People are afraid they won’t be able to rehome their roosters. I was very afraid of that when I started out. Turns out, there is a market for roosters. I charge from $5-20 each, depending on breed and age/size. If people want to eat a bird they buy from me, that’s their choice. But I do get a lot of people who want a rooster for their flock. You can put those cockerels on Craigslist. It might take a while, but you’ll get them gone.

a bachelor flock is waste of time and more mouths to feed.

This.

The only reason I can see for dealing with a bachelor flock is if you are a serious breeder and you need certain genetics. My bachelor flocks are not the fun part of my chicken keeping.

I once asked a long-time chicken breeder for tips on how to manage my roosters. He said, there is no easy way. Then he told me different methods that he uses, and they are all labor intensive. So for a fun flock of laying chickens, 0-2 roosters is probably the most that is worth dealing with.

 

[Weeg]

You should leave 2-3 roosters in with your hens, and take the other 4 or 5 and make a small rooster flock! Then you can pick the chillest roosters to stay with your ladies so they won't beat them up, and the rest will have no ladies so they won fight! That would be a good solution, unless you wanted to butcher the 4 extra roo's

 

[One Lucky Momma]

The longer you keep them the harder it will be to part, if you’re someone who hangs out and talks with them everyday. But as Finnie said above, it’s not impossible to rehome a rooster if you can put in a little time and effort.

I have two Roos with 9 hens and it’s quickly become very obvious that one could have handled the job just fine. (That wasn’t the original plan, just another aspect of chicken math.)

 

[em_lyx]

I would say minimum a rooster should have 5-6 hens as CaliFarmsAR said, but I like to stick with 8-9 hens per rooster

 

[piminuse]

As stated above, there should be a good number of ladies to lads. You can keep additional roosters, but they should be raised in a bachelor flock with no ladies to fight over. You can also try 2 roosters per group of 10 hens as they'll figure out their pecking order and you'll have a "second in command" situation where if your head roosters passes or is unable to fulfill his rooster duties then you have a spare that is already acquainted with you and your girls and no need to find a new rooster and do the introduction/quarantine phase.

 

[Weeg]

Welcome!
With twelve pullets, you really should only keep one or maybe two cockerels. Having five in a separate flock is possible, but moving them on would be good instead. On the other hand, being new to chickens, moving all those cockerels on might be better for everyone this year!
Next spring you can start some straight run chicks, and your adult hens will help raise them, and you will have more experience, all good.
Mary

It may be a bit more work, but, it is hard to rehome roosters, especially 5, and thinly other solution to "moving them on" would be culling them, and that is just sad. They would thank you for it if you kept them in a rooster flock, and i've had friends who has started a rooster flock right toff the bat with new chickens, and everything is working out fine! What every you wan to do, Avery