WWYD - Too Many Unexpected Roos, Need to Balance Flock

[bobbi-j]

What’s considered bad behavior towards the pullets? I have 2 little cocks, almost 10 weeks old, starting to grab the girls by the neck. Is that normal or too agressive?

I'd watch them. Once those cockerels hit sexual maturity, there will be no end to the chasing and attempting to breed the pullets who may not be ready yet. This causes much stress in the flock.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

What’s considered bad behavior towards the pullets? I have 2 little cocks, almost 10 weeks old, starting to grab the girls by the neck. Is that normal or too agressive?

If you're a chicken then that is normal and acceptable behavior, if you're a human that is not normal or acceptable behavior.

 

[ChickieChickieMama]

So with my scenario, how many roosters would you aim to keep? Just one? Two? Three? Three is too many in any scenario, right?

How many pullets total would you want? I figure with what I have currently I can expect minimum 4-6 and (an unlikely) maximum around 10 of them to turn out to be pullets.

What's a reasonable flock size? Am I crazy to think I should embrace a few extra roos and go bigger with more pullets? Is that just bad chicken math?

Thank everyone - it's great to have folks to talk these things through!!!

 

[bobbi-j]

You’re the only one who knows how many chickens you want to house, feed and care for. What are your flock goals? How big is your coop? Do you use a run, or do they free range? Go ahead and put up a bachelor coop if you want. It can work, but doesn’t always.

 

[Molpet]

it depends on the roo.. 6 to 20 hens per roo .. my roos seem to have favorites.. one pen there is 12 hens and 4 of them have feather loss... another pen has 7 and they all look fine...

 

[lomine]

It will all depend on your set-up and the personalities of your birds. You won't really know until they are mature how they'll get along.

Male/female ratio is also very flexible and individual. I have 25 hens/pullets and one rooster. I have girls he doesn't mate at all and girls with a bit of feather loss along the tail.

 

[ChickieChickieMama]

You’re the only one who knows how many chickens you want to house, feed and care for. What are your flock goals? How big is your coop? Do you use a run, or do they free range? Go ahead and put up a bachelor coop if you want. It can work, but doesn’t always.

My original post in this thread details all of those things in great length so I won't repeat it all here. I know no one else can tell me what to do but I'm looking for what experienced chicken keepers would recommend as a bit of a sanity check for me! I'm loving keeping chickens way more than I anticipated! My kids and I are having so much fun and learning so much about responsibility, nature and agriculture but I'm worried I might get in over my head in my excitement. So that's why I was asking for other's recommendations....because I don't know what I don't know! I'm getting so much helpful advice so far and I really appreciate all of you taking the time to help me out!

 

[aart]

So with my scenario, how many roosters would you aim to keep? Just one? Two? Three? Three is too many in any scenario, right?

If this is your first year keeping chickens,
I would recommend not keeping any males or adding any more females.
Learning about chicken behaviors and needs with just your 6-10 females will be easier and help you immensely next year when you might add a male and/or more females.
Or keep one, but be ready to isolate him pronto if things go sideways,
when it gets ugly it happens fast.
Sounds as if you have plenty of space to add separate pens and some extra coop/runs already....that's good.