Dealing with aggressive rooster

[PJK63]

Oh! I just read Beekissed article posted by Fentress! Thank you! I will print this and give it to hubby! I guess I don't need to pick him up and rub his belly anymore! LOL! I'll also teach the grandkids and our daughters how to deal with him. Thank you so much!

 

[chicken pickin]

What does "standard-bred" mean?

Standard bred birds are birds being raised by breeders according to breed standards.
Standard breed poultry are chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and guineas that possess specific qualities outlined by the American Poultry Association known as the APA or the American Bantam Association known as the ABA.

 

[Foghorn11]

I have a Leghorn Rooster that has just started attacking me. A little background -- we got 5 leghorn hens so as they got a little older, our neighbor gave us a rooster. As the rooster crowed, all of a sudden, one of our hens did too. That's when we realized that we only had 4 hens.., and now have TWO roosters. A lot of people told us that the roosters would start fighting; however, that never was the case. Just recently, we needed to "get rid" of the one rooster as he was becoming a quite bit too aggressive with the females (not enough hens for the 2 roosters). He was tearing them apart to the point where we thought he was going to kill them, or they would get hurt too bad and die.

Sooooo.., our Leghorn witnessed us "getting rid" of the other rooster. Ever since then -- he has been coming after me. He was always so friendly and would eat out of my hand. Now I have 2 gashes on my leg from his spurs. I do not want to get rid of him too -- but will be ****** if I am going to be attacked every time I go out there.

Is there anyway to get him to stop attacking? My friend tells me that she thinks he is traumatized by what he saw us do to the other rooster -- and I am more inclined to think that he is just now establishing his pecking order and protecting the hens.

Any thoughts!

 

[Sydney Acres]

I have a Leghorn Rooster that has just started attacking me. A little background -- we got 5 leghorn hens so as they got a little older, our neighbor gave us a rooster. As the rooster crowed, all of a sudden, one of our hens did too. That's when we realized that we only had 4 hens.., and now have TWO roosters. A lot of people told us that the roosters would start fighting; however, that never was the case. Just recently, we needed to "get rid" of the one rooster as he was becoming a quite bit too aggressive with the females (not enough hens for the 2 roosters). He was tearing them apart to the point where we thought he was going to kill them, or they would get hurt too bad and die.

Sooooo.., our Leghorn witnessed us "getting rid" of the other rooster. Ever since then -- he has been coming after me. He was always so friendly and would eat out of my hand. Now I have 2 gashes on my leg from his spurs. I do not want to get rid of him too -- but will be ****** if I am going to be attacked every time I go out there.

Is there anyway to get him to stop attacking? My friend tells me that she thinks he is traumatized by what he saw us do to the other rooster -- and I am more inclined to think that he is just now establishing his pecking order and protecting the hens.

Any thoughts!

I assume from your description that this is a young rooster, less than 2 years old, that is trying to establish his place in the flock, and he doesn't want you to hold the top position. If he was the subordinate rooster between the two males, when you removed the dominant male he became free to be as aggressive as he wants to without consequence.

When you say that he may have been traumatized by what he saw you do to the other rooster -- what exactly did you do to the other rooster?? When I "get rid of" a bird, I remove it from the others and take it to another area to slaughter it. Many people put a bird in a killing cone in front of other birds. I don't agree with it, but it's rarely something that would provoke aggression or PTSD in a witness bird.

 

[PJK63]

"Standard bred birds are birds being raised by breeders according to breed standards.
Standard breed poultry are chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and guineas that possess specific qualities outlined by the American Poultry Association known as the APA or the American Bantam Association known as the ABA. "

So, hatcheries don't do this? That's disappointing. We got all of ours from McMurray Hatchery.

 

[chicken pickin]

"Standard bred birds are birds being raised by breeders according to breed standards.
Standard breed poultry are chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and guineas that possess specific qualities outlined by the American Poultry Association known as the APA or the American Bantam Association known as the ABA. "

So, hatcheries don't do this? That's disappointing. We got all of ours from McMurray Hatchery.

No hatcheries don't do this. Hatcheries produce chickens that look similar in appearance to certain breeds, these chickens show enough characteristics that people can recognize the breed they are buying. These birds are not bred to have the qualities of a Standard bred bird or to be wonderful representations but more so to be better egg producers that many backyard chickens owners are looking for. Hatchery birds will never be used when breeding to standard and many do not represent the breed well enough to bring to show, their body type and size are off and color/pattern isn't what it should be.

Breeding to standard is done mainly by backyard chicken raisers these breeders have a true love and understanding for certain breeds and strive to improve them and keep the old lines alive and beautiful. Breeding to standard takes time (years upon years) focus and a love. It also takes a good eye and knowledge on how one should pair birds to truly improve the breed. Standard bred birds are quality birds and are a world of difference from hatchery birds.

This is not saying hatchery chickens are not good chickens, they are perfect for most. But if you are looking for quality chickens of a certain breed you need to be looking outside of hatcheries and searching for those wonderful breeders.

 

[PJK63]

No hatcheries don't do this. Hatcheries produce chickens that look similar in appearance to certain breeds, these chickens show enough characteristics that people can recognize the breed they are buying. These birds are not bred to have the qualities of a Standard bred bird or to be wonderful representations but more so to be better egg producers that many backyard chickens owners are looking for. Hatchery birds will never be used when breeding to standard...

Interesting. I guess since we really just want eggs, it doesn't really matter. I doubt I'll ever get into breeding or trying to show anyway. I guess if the grandkids want to do that, then we'll have to find a breeder, so this is good to know! I do hope they get into 4H and do some stuff like that! We didn't have 4H at my school when I was a kid, so I missed out on the fun. Of course, sine our oldest grandchild just started Pre-K yesterday, I don't have to worry about it for a while!

I've been happy with our chickens. But one thing that McMurray did was substitute some of the chicks that we ordered. Of course, we ordered rather late, so that's probably why. The one in my profile picture was a substitute for a speckled sussex. Although I really enjoyed this Polish, she was a poor substitute and I couldn't help but wonder what they were thinking. She is the only one that we have lost. Something ate her just right before they started laying.

 

[Sydney Acres]

"Standard bred birds are birds being raised by breeders according to breed standards.
Standard breed poultry are chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and guineas that possess specific qualities outlined by the American Poultry Association known as the APA or the American Bantam Association known as the ABA. "

So, hatcheries don't do this? That's disappointing. We got all of ours from McMurray Hatchery.

No, hatcheries don't even try to do this. Here's the difference between hatchery selection and private breeder selection:

A private breeder only raises one or a few breeds over his/her lifetime. S/he studies everything possible about the history, function, and characteristics of the breed, and obtains the best possible stock that s/he can afford and has access to. S/he selects the best matched male and female based on their body characteristics for pair mating, or sometimes trio or quad mating, with the goal to produce chicks better than their excellent parents. Every year the selection process is refined to hatch out better and better quality birds, and to have all the offspring more consistent across the board, knowing that you will never produce the perfect bird, but always having that as your goal so you can hopefully make incremental progress every year. That takes a tremendous amount of record keeping, infrastructure to separate the pairs/trio/quads during breeding, and knowledge/intuition regarding each bird's potential. It is a long, often decades long process to develop excellent birds out of average birds, with no financial compensation for the work that is done. (Don't think that paying $5-10 per chick or $75 for a breeding quality cockerel, or $200 for a breeding quality trio is compensation. It took thousands of dollars and years of work to get those birds to that point, and there are few buyers to offset those costs.)

A hatchery is strictly a business, and their only interest is to turn a profit using "purebred" birds to do it. They typically obtain a breeding flock from some breeder to start. The flock that they obtain may be good quality, or it may be the breeder's culls, but it doesn't much matter. All birds are put together in a large breeding shed, typically at a 1:6 ratio of males to females but different hatcheries have different protocols. For common breeds that are popular with customers, these are typically huge flocks. One person recently described a Rhode Island Red breeding shed at a large hatchery. There were 600 hens and 100 roosters crammed together in a 40 X 80 foot shed. The roosters spent most of the day fighting, and the most aggressive roosters were the ones that got to quickly breed hens, usually fending off another male who also wanted to breed. Any male who started out as a gentlemen, who courted the hens instead of attacked them, never had a chance to pass on his genetics. In this breeding model, even if the hatchery starts out with good quality birds, after a few generations of this the quality spirals down to junk. The resulting chicks may technically be purebreds, but without active selection and proper pairing for desirable qualities, combined with a system that effectively selects for aggression, these "purebred" chicks are a far cry from what a real breeder produces. Hatchery chicks rarely come anywhere near the SOP regarding size, structure, health, vigor, longevity, or production, and often have anxiety or flighty characteristics that are not appropriate for the breed. They are essentially the chicken version of a puppy mill puppy. That doesn't mean that some of them won't be excellent layers, meat producers, or pets, but most will come no where near the breed's potential in any category.

 

[Fentress]

And that's why hatchery males are aggressive! I became interested in standard bred poultry, not because I wanted to show, but because I wanted a true dual purposed bird that has some meat in its bones. The hatchery stock are bred to be layers, because that is what is most in demand. When I started out 3 years ago, I had no idea that it would be so difficult to get a true DP bird

 

[PJK63]

No, hatcheries don't even try to do this. Here's the difference between hatchery selection and private breeder selection:

A private breeder only raises one or a few breeds over his/her lifetime. S/he studies everything possible...

...these "purebred" chicks are a far cry from what a real breeder produces. Hatchery chicks rarely come anywhere near the SOP regarding size, structure, health, vigor, longevity, or production, and often have anxiety or flighty characteristics that are not appropriate for the breed. They are essentially the chicken version of a puppy mill puppy. That doesn't mean that some of them won't be excellent layers, meat producers, or pets, but most will come no where near the breed's potential in any category.

Well, blaaaaaaaaah. That really is disappointing. Not sure I want to support that. I may have to much more selective in where I purchase our future chicks from. Although, I probably can't afford to buy from a private breeder. I imagine it is just like a dog breeder. If you do it right, you don't make money. Oh well. We'll probably be looking to buy some more chicks next year, as our girls will be about 2 years old. Maybe I'll be able to find a good source by then.