imacowgirl2
Songster
I've read through all the rooster posts for hours on end over the past couple months ever since we ordered our first batch of chicks that included a rooster.
With all my reading, I've come to the conclusion that I want to raise my rosters as hands off as possible to try to prevent them from seeing me as part of the flock and instead as a "big person that brings feed" similar to how they would (not) interact with a horse or cow. To that end, we haven't been handling them (ie picking them up, etc) since they were a couple weeks old. I also occasionally randomly pick something up and walk through their space to put it down on the other side. I also know that I will not put up with a human aggressive rooster - the first time they attack, they will become supper.
To date, our teenage rooster (16.5 weeks old) has always moved out of my way. However, he seems to be staying to display some dominance things...he comes running to my feet (usually stops about a foot away... Close than I prefer) and starts clucking all around whenever I walk out anywhere in the yard, which seems to me to be a display of dominance, but I could be wrong. However, yesterday when he ran up to me, he stopped right in front of me, and proceeded to ruffle his feathers up really big. Am I right they these are escalating signs of dominance/aggression?
I really need to keep this guy until I can hatch some chicks from him after the first of the year, if possible. But I also know that aggression can be hereditary, so I don't really want to breed him if he is going to end up being truly human aggressive. Is this behavior typical "push the boundaries" teenage behavior with the possibility of him calming back down once the hormones are done raging? Or do these things point to a rooster that will end up being human aggressive permanently? I know that if older roosters are human aggressive they're likely to remain human aggressive... I'm just not sure how much of a benefit of the doubt to give him right now...
My plan is to move him and the younger cockerels (about 8 weeks old) to a bachelor pad within the next few days so that he doesn't have as much direct interaction with us, to help prevent giving him an opportunity to be aggressive during his super hormonal period that he seems to be going through...but I guess I'm just wondering, is there hope he will come out of it with a little bit of age, or should I resign myself to the fact that he will need to be chicken dinner?
With all my reading, I've come to the conclusion that I want to raise my rosters as hands off as possible to try to prevent them from seeing me as part of the flock and instead as a "big person that brings feed" similar to how they would (not) interact with a horse or cow. To that end, we haven't been handling them (ie picking them up, etc) since they were a couple weeks old. I also occasionally randomly pick something up and walk through their space to put it down on the other side. I also know that I will not put up with a human aggressive rooster - the first time they attack, they will become supper.
To date, our teenage rooster (16.5 weeks old) has always moved out of my way. However, he seems to be staying to display some dominance things...he comes running to my feet (usually stops about a foot away... Close than I prefer) and starts clucking all around whenever I walk out anywhere in the yard, which seems to me to be a display of dominance, but I could be wrong. However, yesterday when he ran up to me, he stopped right in front of me, and proceeded to ruffle his feathers up really big. Am I right they these are escalating signs of dominance/aggression?
I really need to keep this guy until I can hatch some chicks from him after the first of the year, if possible. But I also know that aggression can be hereditary, so I don't really want to breed him if he is going to end up being truly human aggressive. Is this behavior typical "push the boundaries" teenage behavior with the possibility of him calming back down once the hormones are done raging? Or do these things point to a rooster that will end up being human aggressive permanently? I know that if older roosters are human aggressive they're likely to remain human aggressive... I'm just not sure how much of a benefit of the doubt to give him right now...
My plan is to move him and the younger cockerels (about 8 weeks old) to a bachelor pad within the next few days so that he doesn't have as much direct interaction with us, to help prevent giving him an opportunity to be aggressive during his super hormonal period that he seems to be going through...but I guess I'm just wondering, is there hope he will come out of it with a little bit of age, or should I resign myself to the fact that he will need to be chicken dinner?