answers:

Sure you can. but, as the others said you don’t need a rooster to get eggs. Eggs for a hen are like a woman and her period. it just happens. but if a baby is to be born (hatched) then it must be fertilized by the male.(rooster)

The ideal flock contains one rooster per fifteen-ten hens (bantam which is a smaller chicken) and six-eight hens per rooster for standard breeds.

Keeping roosters together- This depends on the breed of roosters that you have. I have kept thirteen roosters in the same pen and there were not any fights. the roosters had all been raised together since they were young. I have also had a few roosters that would try to kill other roosters. These roosters were very violent even to the hens. Violent roosters tend to come from flashy bantam breeds like the Jungle Fowl. All of the breeds listed tend to be calm so you most likely will not have to deal with such issues.

Keeping bantams and standard breeds together- I keep both bantams and standard birds but the bantams always have free roam to the yard. therefore if standard hen feels like attacking one of them they are not trapped inside a chicken pen. So if you are going to keep bantams make sure that they have enough room to escape the bigger birds.

Silkie Bantams- They tend to be very sweet chickens. They are smaller and lay tiny cream eggs. They are not very good birds for laying eggs because of their habit to go broody. I would not suggest these birds unless you are going to allow them to hatch out chicks.

Rhode Island Red- These birds can be very sweet but some are aggressive. They are terrific layers of brown eggs. My girls lay even in the winter on the coldest snowy days. sometimes the hens go broody but it isn’t that often (broody is the hormonal imbalance that causes the hen to want to have chicks)

Plymouth Rock- My Plymouth Rocks are lovely hens. I have white and barred. They are good layers of brown eggs and will lay in the winter. They sometimes go broody.

Brahma- I have two light Brahma hens (Amber and Amy) they tend to be more standoffish then my other birds. They are very cute though. They haven’t yet started to lay but Brahma’s are okay layers of brown eggs. They do go broody.

Other breeds I would suggest

Austrop- My black Austrop hens are very calm and sweet. They are good layers of brown eggs. mine are laying even though it is winter. They do go broody.

Wyandotte- Wyandotte are lovely birds. They are good layers of brown eggs and will lay in the winter. They do go broody.

Americana (Easter Egger)- These birds are good layers of blue and green eggs. their temperament and ability to brood depends on the strain of bird that you get.

Orpington- Nice birds that lay brown eggs even in the winter. They do brood.

To check out breeds go to

feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html#Chickens (pictures)

and Henderson’s chicken chart for information on breeds

Hope this helps if you do have any questions feel free to contact me via email.