Roosters...how many is too many?

[aart]

The average correct ratio of males to female is 1:10, as most males will mate a lot every day and need a lot of females to keep them from damaging their skin and feathers.

Ehhhh...not really.

The 'rooster' to hen ratio of 1:10 that is often cited is primarily for fertility efficiency in commercial breeding facilities.

It doesn't mean that if a cockbird has 10 hens that he won't abuse or over mate them.

Many breeders keep pairs, trios, quads, etc ....short term and/or long term.

It all depends on the temperaments of the cock and hens and sometimes housing provided.

Backyard flocks can achieve good fertility with a larger ratio.

 

[Altairsky]

I have a friend who is a breeder and he never keeps more than 4 hens with a single rooster. His hens looks nice and are not overbred.
Most of the times he keeps 1 roo with 2 hens. As far as I know, he never had problems.
I told him about the 1:10 ratio and he laughed at that. He said the rooster will have a heart attack if he has to satisfy all those girls

 

[Ridgerunner]

Thank you for your informative reply. I am in the US, in Oregon.

Ideally, I would like to have at least one rooster, because when I become more knowledgeable, I'd like to someday hatch my own chicks. I also plan to expand my flock by adding more hens.

I should have been more clear in my post by asking how many is too many for my flock lol with only 4 hens (and some unknown), I want to make sure that 4 roosters is okay, as I've never done this before, and jumped into it without a whole bunch of knowledge.

There are two different kinds of aggression, totally unrelated. One is human aggression. Some roosters will attack humans. Sometimes it is any human, sometimes only specific ones. There are a lot of different theories as to why a cockerel or rooster becomes human aggressive, some contradictory. I could write a lot about this and tell several different stories but the bottom line is that if one attacks a human, he needs to go.

The other has to do with flock dynamics and differing personalities of chickens. In a feral flock in the wild, you typically have a dominant rooster and some mature hens that totally free range. When they reach a certain age the cockerels' hormones kick in. Those hormones tell him to dominate the flock so he starts trying to mate the hens and pullets and may challenge the dominant rooster. The rooster runs these boys out of his flock so they form a bachelor group in a territory where that dominant rooster and his flock is not. Eventually, when they mature enough, they set up their own territory and attract some pullets and hens to start their own flock. Or they challenge a dominant rooster and try to take his flock from him. Often the cockerels act alone but occasionally they act as a group or gang. There are all kinds of exceptions to this since you are dealing with living animals but this is the "theoretical" way it happens in the wild.

Our chickens are not in the wild. We feed them and restrict them to coops and runs. We control where they sleep. And they have been domesticated, they have been bred to get along better in a group. We don't allow a dominant rooster to run his cockerels out of the flock. Those basic instincts are still there though and can be pretty strong.

All of that is to give you an idea of what you might possibly see and maybe even an understanding of what you see with your flock. Your flock does not have a dominant mature rooster. One of those cockerels will take that position. That may be through fights to the death but usually they fight until one runs away. Sometimes jockeying for dominance is relatively peaceful involving intimidation more than fighting but it can be pretty vicious and even deadly. Which one is dominant can change as they go through puberty as they mature at different rates.

Sometimes only the dominant one is allowed to mate with the girls, sometimes several will. They may gang up on one girl. I've practically never seen that but several people on here that I trust say they often see it. Each chicken has its own personality, each flock has its own dynamics. Also, we keep them in many different conditions. Mine have a fairly large coop and over 2,000 square feet of room outside. I often think I have fewer problems than some others because of that room.

You see ratios given on this forum for girls to a boy. 10 to 1 is pretty common but occasionally you'll see where that is for full-sized chickens while 15 to 1 covers bantams. I don't believe in those ratios. They are based on hatcheries that use the pen breeding system (think 20 roosters locked in a pen with 200 hens) and are to ensure fertility. We don't use those breeding methods. A hatcheries business is fertile eggs. Hatcheries don't blindly go with those ratios anyway. They monitor fertility and adjust the numbers to manage that. If fertility is low they will add more roosters. If fertility is really strong they remove a rooster or two to make managing them easier. A few years back one of the hatcheries we use published a list of the actual ratios they used. It was all over the board. Some flocks were 7 to 1. Others were well over 10 to 1.

I typically overwinter one rooster and 6 to 8 hens, never 10. One time I had eight hens and two of them were badly barebacked. I ate those two hens so I was then down to only 6 with the rooster. I never had any barebacked problems or over-mating problems with those six. The ratio was not the problem and the rooster was not the problem. Those individual hens were the problem. One member of this forum used to keep several semi-feral flocks that pretty much free ranged. He saw them naturally divide into flocks with one rooster and two to four mature hens. They often had immature cockerels and pullets with them but the basic flock was a very low ratio.

So what will you see as yours go through puberty. Nobody can tell you for sure. It may be relatively peaceful. What I'd expect to see is that one or more of the boys will want to mate with the pullets. Until the girls start laying and the boys mature to where they start to act like respectable roosters the girls will mostly resist. Typically the girls run away. The boys usually chase after them and force them to mate. Occasionally a girl will fight back, she may kick his butt, at least until he matures more. It may get really rough down there, be hard to watch. It may not.

But I suggest you have a plan where you can separate one or more boys from the flock instantly. Sometimes you don't have a lot of time to react. That means a separate coop and run being ready. In an emergency a crate can work but if you are going to keep them they will need more room. Having a place to isolate an injured chicken is a good thing to have at any stage with your flock.

You said you wanted to get down to one rooster. Once you decide on your goals so you can start deciding between them I'd start eliminating the ones you don't want to keep. The boys usually have a lot more personality than the girls so you can grow attached to them. That makes it harder to get rid of them. And the fewer you have the more you can see their personality so you may be better able to make a good decision.

My personal preference is to not keep a milksop of a boy. Once they get past the wild hormones of puberty most roosters calm down and start acting mature. I want a rooster with enough self-confidence that he can WOW! the hens by the force of his personality and magnificence. I don't want a weak one that has to physically force the hens if he mates them. That is just my personal preference, others on this forum do not feel that way.

I want to make sure that 4 roosters is okay, as I've never done this before, and jumped into it without a whole bunch of knowledge.

The only way to know for sure is to try it. It works for some people. But I strongly suggest you have a plan if it doesn't work. Be ready.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

Ehhhh...not really.

The 'rooster' to hen ratio of 1:10 that is often cited is primarily for fertility efficiency in commercial breeding facilities.

It doesn't mean that if a cockbird has 10 hens that he won't abuse or over mate them.

Many breeders keep pairs, trios, quads, etc ....short term and/or long term.

It all depends on the temperaments of the cock and hens and sometimes housing provided.

Backyard flocks can achieve good fertility with a larger ratio.

If you would have looked at the rest of my reply, you would have seen I mentioned that in three paragraphs.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

1 is to many lol my hens are more friendly without a male then with one

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

I have a friend who is a breeder and he never keeps more than 4 hens with a single rooster. His hens looks nice and are not overbred.
Most of the times he keeps 1 roo with 2 hens. As far as I know, he never had problems.
I told him about the 1:10 ratio and he laughed at that. He said the rooster will have a heart attack if he has to satisfy all those girls

Your friend is very lucky with his males. Ten females is not a lot at all for a male to handle. Finding males that do not overbreed less than five females is rare. Possible, as we see in a lot of situations, but far less common than seeing the overbreeding male situations.

 

[McChooky]

I wouldn't keep more than one rooster unless they are (1) father and son or brothers and (2) free range all day. Roosters need SPACE. You will need a backup plan for roosters because spats start suddenly

 

[FrostRanger]

Your friend is very lucky with his males. Ten females is not a lot at all for a male to handle. Finding males that do not overbreed less than five females is rare. Possible, as we see in a lot of situations, but far less common than seeing the overbreeding male situations.

I think it's also worth noting that genetics are probably at play here. He probably would cull any boys who cause problems in his setup amd thus his boys are....less active with the hens than usual

 

[Altairsky]

Your friend is very lucky with his males. Ten females is not a lot at all for a male to handle. Finding males that do not overbreed less than five females is rare. Possible, as we see in a lot of situations, but far less common than seeing the overbreeding male situations.

It's not luck. A rooster that is rude to hens and overbreed them is a bad rooster. Bad roosters can have 10 hens and still overbreed them. Good roosters can have one hen and be nice to her. Just cull the bad roos and breed the nice ones, problem solved forever.
Adding more hens to a rude rooster won't make him better, and rude roos shouldn't be bred anyway because overbreeding is a genetic trait.