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.

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

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.

One rooster should have 5-6 hens!

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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

 

[mmmeyer]

I've had 1-7 roosters at anyone time. I'm currently feeling bad cause I've had to send a mean rooster to the pot. But I've taken in 2 friendly roosters for the girls.

 

[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.

 

[mmmeyer]

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.

If they are always all together the roosters like the hens will get a pecking order. Come spring hormones rage and you will find them fighting alot for about a month. then they will settle. When I had 2, one got injured and after he was well I put him back with the flock and his shell mate rooster almost killed him. from that moment they would not tolerate each other. Now I have 2 coops due to a hen chick turning out to be a rooster, after 3 years the 2 rooster hate each other. Another downside is I don't eat my chickens so to feed too many roosters through the winter annoys me.