Rooster Characteristics? Agressive vs. non agressive

We had a Bielefelder roo, very large and non aggressive to the other poultry except to our peahen, which he intimidated constantly. One day I was walking past him crossing the chicken yard wearing shorts and for no reason, He ran up behind me and pecked the back of my leg. I turned around and he walked away. As walked on I watched him out of the corner of my eye and he was running up behind me again. This time out of reflex I spun around the booted him in mid peck. He avoided me from then on. Unfortunately the neighbors large dog got into the fence and killed him.

Our first rooster was a Rhode Island Red...my husband had a special name for him; started with a big A. MEAN bird! Beautiful and never lost any hens to foxes, hawks, etc with him around, but he would come after anyone in the yard with all his force to the point where we would carry around a "rooster stick" for self defense. He's no longer with us. Our second rooster is a Brown Leghorn and the total opposite. I call him The Perfect Rooster. Both were raised the same. I just consider breed characteristics and personalities as to why one was vicious and the other not.

I'm still trying to figure my boy out. He was hatched by me from an egg last year and has been my best friend ever since. He was personable and sweet and roosted on my horse's stall all winter. Then in the spring we built a big chicken coop and found a home for his daddy. He inherited the flock and took his job way too seriously. He started attacking everyone incluing the neighbors. I still picked him up and carried him around while doing my chicken chores - easier that way. He still snuggled up, but when I put him down he was pecking my boots. I started pushing him down to the ground and telling him to sit. When I went in to the coop I would remind him to sit and he would walk the other way. Worked most of the time. He ended up with two sons from this years hatch. They are now 4 months so 3 roos in the coop was way too stressful for my hens. He just retired to an apartment with his original hen. It seems like he is calming down now that he has less responsibility. Maybe its the size of the flock that makes the difference? He is a leghorn/Wyandotte mix and his mom was my sweetest hen, so genetically he was set up to be sweet.

sourland said:

Why, sure there are other sorts of roosters. There are show roosters and eatin' roosters, and ----------------------
Many breeders select against 'human aggression' - such roosters are just not used for breeding. Hatcheries don't generally follow such a culling process. Game fowl roosters in my experience are among the least human aggressive. For obvious reasons man fighters are not bred from.

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sourland, I am glad to see you say this. There is a lot of bunkum spouted about chickens, mostly by folks who couldn't tell a drumstick from a weeney.

Sourland, I thoroughly enjoy seeing someone else say that game fowl can be sweet. They're like pit bulls...they've got a bad rap for no reason.

We have 3 Rhode island red roosters. I carried one for 5 blocks after he escaped last month. Of course it took me 24 hours to find him (he doesn't crow for some reason) and then an hour to catch him!!!

Our other rooster, Penguin, is being a jerk. He constantly goes after the one hen. The other two roosters decided to protect her and now we can't keep them together. He's spent the last few weeks in a dog crate. But he can't stay there forever. Trying to decide what to do with him. Our options are trying to integrate him back in his original coop, or we could put him with our 6 white rock hens, or just rehome him. My husband wants to get rid of him, but I love my roosters!!

Thank you everyone for sharing your wonderful experiance! I greatly enjoy reading your rooster stories.
I did not think the size of the fkock as another factor interesting.
My roo can see, I trimed his eye feathers, but he is still clumsy.

I have 4 roos, and out of all, the Bantam is most aggressive. Raised the others, and they eat out of my hand. Two are gold and red mixed breed, another is a Red, So a lot is how they are raised I think, and some types are just naturally more protective of their hens and/or aggressive toward humans. And might be more so towards men.