Roosters...how many is too many?

[NorthernHomestead]

This is my first year with chickens, but from what I've witnessed, the temperament of the roosters plays a huge part. My hens didn't start laying until we culled the boys that were too aggressive. And when the girls managed to hide, the boys turned to aggressing on and attempting to forcefully mate with other roosters. At the time I only had Buff Orps which are a gentle breed.

In the end we kept two of the boys and eight hens. Then we lost four of the hens to drive-home commuters that couldn't keep their eyes open. After installing a couple of trail cameras aimed at the road and posting about doing so on FB for neighbors to see, we magically stopped losing chickens to cars and purchased four more mixed breed girls to get our hen count back to eight.

A lot of people say one roo is more than enough, but if they're well-tempered, multiple roos shouldn't be a problem. If not, they'll only cause problems for your flock.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

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.

I know all of that, overbreeding roosters should be removed from the flock. But what you were describing in your post is that your friend has a lot of good roosters－that is luck, since there are so many bad ones out there.

Overbreeding is mostly a genetic trait, I agree, but not always. For example, Jasper (my rooster who has two hens and rarely mates), has a son named Odie, who is nothing like him when it comes to females. Odie is aggressive and forces them down to mate. Which is why he is separated with other cockerels. Killing is not an option in my situation because Odie loves me and I love him. I just wish he would have gotten Jasper's kindness to females.

It's just my opinion based on my observations so others will have different opinions. I find that immature cockerels in puberty tend to be a lot more sexually active than a mature rooster. I believe one reason breeders tend to be able to keep one male with only one or two females is that they do not use cockerels. They use mature roosters.

Older roosters tend to be the ones that are a lot nicer too. It seems like the older they get, the less they care about breeding. Which makes sense because their fertility decreases and they know they are getting weaker at that point.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@Ridgerunner at what age is a rooster too old to breed effectively? I have a wonderful rooster whose hens love him and I think the world of him. He's at least 3 years old, possibly 4. I have 20 hens and I have no idea how sexually active he is. If I wanted to hatch eggs, should I think about replacing him?

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

@Ridgerunner at what age is a rooster too old to breed effectively? I have a wonderful rooster whose hens love him and I think the world of him. He's at least 3 years old, possibly 4. I have 20 hens and I have no idea how sexually active he is. If I wanted to hatch eggs, should I think about replacing him?

Over four years old is when their fertility really starts dropping, just like how the egg production of females becomes sparse. But that does not mean you cannot breed him－go ahead and see. You said he is a wonderful rooster. It is better to breed a wonderful rooster than a bad one.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

Also, just a side note but the older roosters get the weirder they are about mating. I have an old rooster who is probably four years or older, and he mates the hens sideways as if their vent is on their wing. I tried incubating eggs from his hens but you know how that went.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Thanks, Swamp. I will set some eggs and candle them, see how it goes.

 

[Ridgerunner]

@Ridgerunner at what age is a rooster too old to breed effectively? I have a wonderful rooster whose hens love him and I think the world of him. He's at least 3 years old, possibly 4. I have 20 hens and I have no idea how sexually active he is. If I wanted to hatch eggs, should I think about replacing him?

As with everything else, it varies. Each one is an individual. Some older roosters will do OK with 20 hens, you might need to cut it down to a few hens housed with him to help fertility.

My suggestion is to crack open several eggs and look for the bull's eye. If most of the eggs you open have the bull's eye then most eggs you don't open should be fertile and should hatch. If very few have the bull's eye then very few of the others should hatch.

How to Tell a Fertile vs INfertile Egg (Pictures) | BackYard Chickens - Learn How to Raise Chickens

From what I've seen the boys generally go through three phases. They don't all act exactly the same so you can get huge differences between individuals. That's the nature of living animals.

As immature cockerels their hormones can drive them wild. They are fighting each other and trying to mate with the girls. This mating has nothing to do with fertilizing eggs, it is all about dominance. The one on top is dominating the one on the bottom. I've seen boys mating boys, girls mating girls. Not often but I have seen it. It is purely about dominating behaviors.

Once they reach a certain maturity level the boys are no longer that strongly hormone driven. They still mate a lot but they are no longer forcing the girls. They impress the girls (who are now more mature themselves if you had only pullets) so much with their magnificence and force of personality that the girls willingly submit. This is in general, of course. Some hens are not willing to submit to any male. Some boys never mature to the point that they impress all of the hens. But most do and that makes for a peaceful flock.

Once the rooster gets "old" his sex drive tends to slow down. There is no set age for "old" as each is an individual. He may be able to keep a few hens fertile but in a larger flock it may only be a few hens. If you have a younger more active rooster in the flock this is when he may challenge and defeat the old rooster and become the new flock master. You see stories that describe this on this forum every year.

So check for bull's eyes. If you want chicks from him you might be OK or you might need to house him with three or four of your hens to help get fertile eggs. Your 4-year-old may be fine with 20 hens or he may not. I don't know.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

As with everything else, it varies. Each one is an individual. Some older roosters will do OK with 20 hens, you might need to cut it down to a few hens housed with him to help fertility.

My suggestion is to crack open several eggs and look for the bull's eye. If most of the eggs you open have the bull's eye then most eggs you don't open should be fertile and should hatch. If very few have the bull's eye then very few of the others should hatch.

How to Tell a Fertile vs INfertile Egg (Pictures) | BackYard Chickens - Learn How to Raise Chickens

From what I've seen the boys generally go through three phases. They don't all act exactly the same so you can get huge differences between individuals. That's the nature of living animals.

As immature cockerels their hormones can drive them wild. They are fighting each other and trying to mate with the girls. This mating has nothing to do with fertilizing eggs, it is all about dominance. The one on top is dominating the one on the bottom. I've seen boys mating boys, girls mating girls. Not often but I have seen it. It is purely about dominating behaviors.

Once they reach a certain maturity level the boys are no longer that strongly hormone driven. They still mate a lot but they are no longer forcing the girls. They impress the girls (who are now more mature themselves if you had only pullets) so much with their magnificence and force of personality that the girls willingly submit. This is in general, of course. Some hens are not willing to submit to any male. Some boys never mature to the point that they impress all of the hens. But most do and that makes for a peaceful flock.

Once the rooster gets "old" his sex drive tends to slow down. There is no set age for "old" as each is an individual. He may be able to keep a few hens fertile but in a larger flock it may only be a few hens. If you have a younger more active rooster in the flock this is when he may challenge and defeat the old rooster and become the new flock master. You see stories that describe this on this forum every year.

So check for bull's eyes. If you want chicks from him you might be OK or you might need to house him with three or four of your hens to help get fertile eggs. Your 4-year-old may be fine with 20 hens or he may not. I don't know.

Thank you, that helps.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

As with everything else, it varies. Each one is an individual. Some older roosters will do OK with 20 hens, you might need to cut it down to a few hens housed with him to help fertility.

My suggestion is to crack open several eggs and look for the bull's eye. If most of the eggs you open have the bull's eye then most eggs you don't open should be fertile and should hatch. If very few have the bull's eye then very few of the others should hatch.

How to Tell a Fertile vs INfertile Egg (Pictures) | BackYard Chickens - Learn How to Raise Chickens

From what I've seen the boys generally go through three phases. They don't all act exactly the same so you can get huge differences between individuals. That's the nature of living animals.

As immature cockerels their hormones can drive them wild. They are fighting each other and trying to mate with the girls. This mating has nothing to do with fertilizing eggs, it is all about dominance. The one on top is dominating the one on the bottom. I've seen boys mating boys, girls mating girls. Not often but I have seen it. It is purely about dominating behaviors.

Once they reach a certain maturity level the boys are no longer that strongly hormone driven. They still mate a lot but they are no longer forcing the girls. They impress the girls (who are now more mature themselves if you had only pullets) so much with their magnificence and force of personality that the girls willingly submit. This is in general, of course. Some hens are not willing to submit to any male. Some boys never mature to the point that they impress all of the hens. But most do and that makes for a peaceful flock.

Once the rooster gets "old" his sex drive tends to slow down. There is no set age for "old" as each is an individual. He may be able to keep a few hens fertile but in a larger flock it may only be a few hens. If you have a younger more active rooster in the flock this is when he may challenge and defeat the old rooster and become the new flock master. You see stories that describe this on this forum every year.

So check for bull's eyes. If you want chicks from him you might be OK or you might need to house him with three or four of your hens to help get fertile eggs. Your 4-year-old may be fine with 20 hens or he may not. I don't know.

Your responses are so thought-out and informative. I unfortunately do not have the time for big responses like yours, and sometimes I draw a blank even though I have studied chickens for years and read it so many times (likely because I am largely nervous that someone will try to fight me and say I have it wrong even though I have it right). I am glad there are people like you here to explain everything thoroughly, with a way that the inexperienced chicken-keepers understand.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

Some hens are not willing to submit to any male.

Dominant females are the ones who mostly do this, as submitting will make them appear weak to the other females of the flock. I have an elderly California Gray hen who is dominant but also surprisingly peaceful at the same time. At least when it comes to new chicks and other females. But not to males. If any male dances at her, or tries to mate her, she will whack them in the head and beat them up. One time, my Polish cockerel had found her in a corner of a cage (why do chickens act like opened cages are totally new lands to free-range in? LOL) and came up behind her, stepping on her back to mount her. But she whipped around, grabbed him by his neck, and banged his head into the side of the cage.