- Apr 25, 2015
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It all depends.
I find that roosters handled to much as chicks tend to be the most aggressive. However this is just what I have found with my own birds.
I am assuming you don't intend on showing. So for me a free range or layer rooster is only for the purpose of watching the hens. I don't bother them, they don't bother me is how it works. As long as they keep the hens safe and happy I am happy with them. But they are not aggressive, I have just never handled them. If I have to they squirm a little and then stop. I had one Bantam cochin as a free range rooster. He was my sweetest rooster out there, did tricks, would come up to me, and he took pretty good care of the smaller hens, as the SLW×Chantecler, and Chantecler rooster wouldn't let him have any bigger or older hens.
However my show cochins are another story. The cockerels all seem to go through a phase around 4-6 months old where they are mean as heck. You can't even stick your hand in the conditioning cage without being attacked. Keep in mind these are LF's too. After a few months it goes away and they are some of the friendliest bird. I had a black last year who was so mean, if he wasn't such a good bird he would have been culled. Thankfully he turned around and became the nicest, cuddliest bird ever. One of the ways I changed him was by starting out by petting him, and giving him a treat, and then to holding him and so on.
2 months prior to this picture you could barely touch him without being attacked, and at the State Fair he was very sweet and let people point at him and even a few kids sticking their fingers in his cage and didn't care.
I find that roosters handled to much as chicks tend to be the most aggressive. However this is just what I have found with my own birds.
I am assuming you don't intend on showing. So for me a free range or layer rooster is only for the purpose of watching the hens. I don't bother them, they don't bother me is how it works. As long as they keep the hens safe and happy I am happy with them. But they are not aggressive, I have just never handled them. If I have to they squirm a little and then stop. I had one Bantam cochin as a free range rooster. He was my sweetest rooster out there, did tricks, would come up to me, and he took pretty good care of the smaller hens, as the SLW×Chantecler, and Chantecler rooster wouldn't let him have any bigger or older hens.
However my show cochins are another story. The cockerels all seem to go through a phase around 4-6 months old where they are mean as heck. You can't even stick your hand in the conditioning cage without being attacked. Keep in mind these are LF's too. After a few months it goes away and they are some of the friendliest bird. I had a black last year who was so mean, if he wasn't such a good bird he would have been culled. Thankfully he turned around and became the nicest, cuddliest bird ever. One of the ways I changed him was by starting out by petting him, and giving him a treat, and then to holding him and so on.
2 months prior to this picture you could barely touch him without being attacked, and at the State Fair he was very sweet and let people point at him and even a few kids sticking their fingers in his cage and didn't care.
