5 month buff Orpington rooster suddenly aggressive.

[Chickole]

3 days ago he started showing signs of aggression towards me. He also just started mounting the hens. This is puberty right? The thing is, he flogs me and almost pecked out my eye as I was closing the coop today. I have a small cut under my eye and a few on my hand from yesterday. I don’t dare touch the hens anymore as he’s always looking to attack me. I try to make sure when I bring treats he gets first dibs in case he wants to feed the hens and that’s the only time he’s decent.

What can I do or should I re home? I know it’s his job but I’d rather not be cut up.

 

[Chickole]

He’s good at signaling for predators and likes to chase the hens inside the coop at night. I’d say he’s doing his job well so far. He was a very sweet boy when he was younger and I know that’s a bad sign but he was soo adorable. His name is Buff and Ron for Ronald Weasley. We had another accidental roo who picked on him and we re homed. His behavior is different now that he rules the roost.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are threads on here about how to tame a cockerel like that. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. But often when they work it is only for you. They may still attack other people. You had a cut under your eye. Imagine that in the eye of a young child.

I have no tolerance for a human aggressive cockerel or rooster. In my opinion there are too many good boys out there to put up with a bad one.

His behavior is different now that he rules the roost.

This often happens. The dominant one can suppress the behaviors of submissive cockerels and roosters while they are around but once they are gone they can change their behaviors. I don't know what that "picked on him" behavior actually looked like, it could have been normal and natural with two boys. As long as no chicken is injured I don't worry about it too much. Perhaps you rehomed the wrong one if he was not human aggressive?

 

[Mrs. K]

The darling to the nightmare is a rather common occurrence with roosters. I would let this one go. I am of the opinion, that once the aggression starts, it seldom goes back. I would not keep an aggressive dog either.

It is not his job to attack you. Let him go. Almost all of us on here, kept the first rotten rooster too long. There are good roosters if your really want one, but really a hen only flock is pretty good to get some experience with.

Mrs K

 

[K0k0shka]

It’s not worth it. He is not doing his job if he attacks the source of food. If he can’t tell the difference between the source of food and a predator, then he failed his job and is not worth keeping. In addition to injuring you, he’s also preventing you from caring for the flock. What if a hen was sick or hurt and you had to pick her up? What if you had to go away and somebody else checked in on your flock and got hurt? Nope, not worth it. If you rehome, make sure to disclose his aggression ahead of time. If nobody wants him (understandable), he’d make a great meal.