When to remove roos

[Riparian]

Unfortunatly right now I have ten hens and 3 roosters. They are only 5 weeks old. The original plan was to exist with 2 roos (incase one died or didnt make it out of the brooder) but the hatchery must have sent me an extra.

I plan on free ranging, can I exist with a ratio of 10 hens to 2 roos?

At what age should I remove the extra roo?

 

[chickenannie]

The ratio should be no more than 1 roo to 10-15 hens. It's so easy to find roos that people are trying to get rid of, I wouldn't worry too much about having just one.

You will *know* when to get rid of the extra roos -- when they start breeding with the hens, or just before. I think about 3-4 months depending on the breed they will constantly fight each other and worst of all with the 3 to 10 ratio they will pester those poor hens to death. It will affect your hen's health if there are too many roos. Keep an eye on them. When you decide which roo to keep, pick the most vigorous (healthy), best characteristics, and most importantly, the most gentle one.

I have one gentle roo, and one kinda big stupid roo for my 35 hens.

 

[Smitty's Farm]

I have 15 girls to one roo. They all turned a yr old in April and I've had them since they were a day old. I thought I had a good ratio, but he is tearing the girls up one by one.
It all started in Dec w/ just one and now he is working his way down the line. I am now seperating him completely, so the girls can have some peace and grow their feather back.

I let him free range during the day and keep the girls in the run that is connected to the coop. Then in the after- noon I let them free range and put him in the run. I don't put him in the coop until lights are off and the girls are asleep. That's all I can do for now until I build him a bachelor pad. Whew! He's pretty mad not to be with his ladies lately.

 

[estpr13]

I've been told that the ratio is around 8 hens to a roo. Also that you can have either 1 roo or 3 or more but not two unless you keep them seperated, because they will fight each other until one is killed. With three, the third one will jump in on a fight and break it up. If you only have 1 then you risk loosing him and not having any roos to breed.
I think a lot of roo behavior has to do with the breed.