# hens vs roosters



## paramedic707 (Dec 23, 2012)

When we bought our Rhode island red baby chicks a few months ago, we spent the extra money on knowing that they were hens. Today we found out that 3 of the 20 weren't hens after all. What would yall do?


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## Jim (Sep 26, 2012)

We had a similar thing happen, but my wife was already in love with Goldie "girl". So, we are keeping him and going to add Americana to our breeding.


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## Jim (Sep 26, 2012)

On the other hand, depends on how much more you spent, and decide if swapping them out is best. You also then have to consider quarantine of the new birds, and so on. I probably would keep them, and then turn any mean ones into a few meals.


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## ThreeJ (Jun 28, 2012)

A few rooster are good for the flock. The tend to protect the hens and keep them happy.

I have 4 guys for 22 gals. Everybody has sombody else They break off in 4 groups when they free range.


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## paramedic707 (Dec 23, 2012)

We've now got 5 roosters for 23 hens. Seems like too many.


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## profwirick (Jan 24, 2013)

ThreeJ said:


> A few rooster are good for the flock. The tend to protect the hens and keep them happy.
> 
> I have 4 guys for 22 gals. Everybody has sombody else They break off in 4 groups when they free range.


helpful post. thanks. I'm hoping my six chicks will be layers, but if there's a roo in there, I'd like to keep him in addition to the one rooster I got in October. Maybe I'll get lucky and they won't battle? nice to have hope.


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## BuckeyeChickens (Jul 11, 2012)

paramedic707 said:


> We've now got 5 roosters for 23 hens. Seems like too many.


you can always eat the "extra" roos!!! thats what I do with mine....they go on death row and end up in the freezer!!!


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## Energyvet (Jul 25, 2012)

I vote keep the Roos. The chickens seem to have already decided that's a good thing. And also you'll get fertile eggs for future generations and replacements. I just ordered 14 chicks and although I ordered all hens, I'm expecting some Roos to show up. They always do.


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

I got two roosters with the pullets I ordered as well. I'm not so lucky to have the option of keeping them... I have too many neighbors. That being said I Craigslisted one and he went to a farm with 70 hens to make Spring chicks (lucky boy!) I still have the second because he was silent, I mean absolutely mute, until a few days ago when he realized Fredo wasn't coming back. SIGH. Not sure what I will do with him. I might let him go with a couple of like hens just so he can be a stud to someone...


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## paramedic707 (Dec 23, 2012)

Wow! That's terrible! I at least can keep mine. I mean technically the chickens r just inside the city limits, but most of our land is just rt outside the city limits. Our neighbors r cool w em all except one n he gives us trouble on anything we own so r pigs r just outside the city limits but not far from his back door. Therefore he can't say a word. Lol. Karma is all I gotta say. 4 out of the 20 were roos but I got a cousin that's fixing to start raising them so I told her not to buy one. I'll give her a couple.


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