How do I manage a rooster just hitting puberty : A Confluence

[Folly's place]

I love having roosters, and really enjoy their crowing. Live where you can legally have them, or don't keep one at all.
Mary

 

[3KillerBs]

Chickens are not dogs and just don't think that way! Walking around a cockerel, especially, is not good. you are the giant who brings food, not a flockmate or a best buddy. Roosters have work to do, watching out for actual dangers, and wooing their ladies. This doesn't include you either!
I like cockerels who get out of my path, and pay attention to their flockmates, and learn polite behaviors from the mature birds in the flock. It's much easier to raise them in a mixed age flock!
Make pets of your hens, if that's what you want to do, and at least until you've had more experience out there, don't play buddy with those cockerels! The boys who follow you around and get close are often the ones who get obnoxious as they mature.
Mary

I'm sure that some of it is luck, and some of it is breed choice, but I heartily endorse this advice.

I have followed it diligently and have had very little trouble with any of my boys.

 

[lases77]

Drawing blood is pretty serious pecking.

I don't think I would keep one that does anything that draws blood.

Human skin is pretty delicate. I don't think they can calculate the degree of force needed to break skin vs not breaking skin. In a chickens mind they're instinct is to know the force needed to communicate with other chickens who have a thick layer of feathers, not thin skin. They must learn that our "feathers" (skin) needs a softer touch. I've seen that just making a "ouch!" sound really surprised them. They learn just from our sounds how to adjust their communication with their beaks. I've never found it necessary to show aggression back. Food for thought

 

[21hens-incharge]

Human skin is pretty delicate. I don't think they can calculate the degree of force needed to break skin vs not breaking skin. In a chickens mind they're instinct is to know the force needed to communicate with other chickens who have a thick layer of feathers, not thin skin. They must learn that our "feathers" (skin) needs a softer touch. I've seen that just making a "ouch!" sound really surprised them. They learn just from our sounds how to adjust their communication with their beaks. I've never found it necessary to show aggression back. Food for thought

Never said to be aggressive toward a rooster (or any chicken).

I said I didn't think I would keep a rooster or cockerel that pecked hard enough to break the skin.
I stand by that. I still wouldn't tolerate a rooster that came after me to peck or flog.