# How many hens can one rooster handle??



## rob34 (May 18, 2014)

I have 1 rooster with a couple hens right now. After a recent trade I have made I will have one rooster with 7 hens. I was just wondering if that would be too many hens for my rooster to handle or not. I'm not using him for breeding purposes. He's just to keep the hens in line and to protect them he's about a yr old. Thanks for any ideas


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## rob34 (May 18, 2014)

My rooster is a white jersey giant and I have 2 golden comet and 2 golden buffs and 3 other white hens I'm not sure of what they are if that makes any difference.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

That's a perfect number!


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## greenhaven (Jan 7, 2014)

I am just about to post about my new rooster. It was given to me and I have 30 free range hens. Why would it be to much? I don't understand. 


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## nj2wv (Aug 27, 2013)

If you want fertile eggs to hatch out then one rooster with thirty hens will give you less fertile eggs. He can't get to each hen. But if you don't want to hatch eggs then it doesn't matter if you have only one for that many hens.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

He can't look after 30 hens sexually or physically. So he will pick his favourites, and the rest will sort of just go where they will. It really depends on what you were looking for in the roo, a breeder, or a protector, and either way, 30 is too big a harem for one boy. 1 roo for every 10-12 girls works well for a large flock like that, and you might get a few infertile eggs


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