*IMPORTANT* - How to deal with an Aggressive Rooster

[Yazzo]

Quote:
Glad you're trying the techniques.

Dave sounds very much like certain people I know....it took me years to convince them that all throwing stuff does is help to make them scared and mean.

mama24:

Your 2-year-old's safety is obviously of utmost importance, but let me just put this out there for thought: my (then) 2-year-old niece played with and caught the roosters without ever being attacked, even though there was one that did have the 'feisty bug' in him. She was supervised of course, but it just goes to show that if you do have time to spend working with them, and if you teach the child to not be afraid of them, it certainly pays off. Sound's like you're pretty darn busy though.

The problem with 'bopping them on the head' and hurting them, is that it DOES make them scared and thus, mean, and, as I wrote above, I know from experience that it is NOT a good thing. It never works, it's just counter productive. Of course, you don't have to be 'friends' with your chickens (although having a relationship with the bird where they aren't just for food, and you can actually pick them up and do crazy stuff with them because they're so tame, is so much more fun and fulfilling), but hitting them really isn't going to help either way. As I said though, you're obviously a very busy person though, but just throwin my thoughts out there.....

Glad you have a nice rooster now.

If he's 9 months old and not aggressive, he will probably stay that way, if you treat him right.

 

[mama24]

He is nice. And b/c of this thread, I am going to start picking him up and petting him when I shut them up for the night. I did it last night and he tolerated it. He really doesn't like it, and neither do the hens. I don't think they were handled much at all by their previous owner. We are also in a different situation here. Our chickens got really sick the first week we had them, and the most likely culprit is mycoplasmosis. I was in contact w/ a state ag vet here, and am following his recommendations. We are keeping them for eggs right now, but they will most likely all be eaten this spring. We are planning on moving to a place w/ more room (we are renting right now), and we will be able to get more chickens, which I would really like to do. But since the chickens will be carriers of mycoplasmosis, we can't expose any new birds. So no, I don't think I'm going to bother making our current rooster more tame. He's pretty darn nice for not being tame at all, in my opinion. But since I know he's got 6 mos or less to live, I don't have much incentive in being extra sweet to him and getting attached, kwim? Right now, he's going to end up in the pot in 6 mos anyway, so 1 wrong move and it's just going to happen sooner. If and when we start over with hand raised chicks, I am sure I will try harder to make friends with them, but not right now.

And yeah, I am super busy. I would rather my 5yo not chase the chickens, but he is autistic and telling him not to do something is like talking to a brick wall. It's either shut the chickens up when he goes outside (we don't have a separate fenced in area for them. They are either in their large shed, or out in the fenced in back yard), or don't let my son play in the back yard. My 11 year old is also on the autism spectrum. I really just don't have any energy left for pets after dealing with my kids all day.

My kids need my love more than chickens do. lol

 

[shareverwonder]

Well, over the weekend I wasn't home much so I didn't get a chance to hold my roo. Sunday night when I went outside to feed everyone their evening snack, that darn roo of mine tried attacking me three times. I guess he was mad at me for ignoring him all weekend.

I'm back to square one. I'll try holding on to him again starting tonight.

 

[Tartannik]

Can I ask a few questions please??
I have a rather large rooster called JimBob (light sussex X), who was hatched by my bantam hen Mrs Chcocolate, I gave her two eggs(that weren't hers) when she was broody and hatched him and Mrs Kitkat (who I have to say is rather skatty and wont' feed from my hand!) My other two 'big' hens practically sit on my knee when feeding them, will come into the kitchen when the back door is open etc. I also have 3 silkies who will eat out my hand too and they all live together quite happily!

Anyway Jimbob is now about 16 months old, he has a favourite hen called Mrs Penguin who I have had to put a saddle on (I know the ratio isn't right but I am working on getting more big hens in the coming weeks!) as she was bare. The other day while giving them some feed I picked Mrs Penguin up to check her saddle and Jimbob came running at me shouting (am sure he was swearing!!) He didn't actually 'attack' me, but I put the hen down, put my hands in the air and roared at JimBob and chased him away!! My mum gave me the 'what the heck are you doing look'

but it was the only thing I could think of at the time to do. I had read about picking them up, but he is rather large and I am rather small (I am not a child, just a small adult lol!) I imagine picking him up, wings and spurs everywhere lol!!

So, was it a bad idea to 'pretend' I was a rooster??? He has grown up in the garden with my 4 kids running about, he has never once bothered them, its only me he seems wary of, or probably because I am the one that touches his hens (how dare I)

A few months ago I was doing a lice preventative thing and getting them out, he wasn't happy about it but just stayed in the coop swearing at me, when you pick him up it looks like his 'hackles' go up and once he pecked the girls finger who was helping, lol it was rather funny but I know he shouldn't have done!

Any ideas??

This is a pic of my boy

Thank you in advance!

Edited to correct spelling mistakes

 

[shareverwonder]

Quote:
He looks like an ornery booger. I am not the best one to give advice. I'm having the same problem with my roo. He's a 7 month old white leghorn "McCoy". some days he'll let me pick him up and other days he wants no part of me. He'll come running from the front yard as fast as he can if he hears any of us come out the back door. Is he going to attack us? It's anyones guess. I have been trying to pick him up everyday and hold him. Just like yours, McCoy doesn't like to be held but he tolerates it. I'm hoping it will hep.

 

[GentlewoodFarms]

I'm so glad that I found this site!

I got extremely lucky, sounds like, with my first rooster, whom I named Joe-Cool. He's relatively docile, easy to handle, and extremely protective of his flock of seven hens. I've seen the "find food and let the girls eat it" behavior, and he defends them from the neighbor's small wired haired terrier, who has a HUGE and healthy respect for him. I've picked him up and handled him a little bit, which he tolerates but doesn't particularly like. He tried pecking me once when I was moving a hen, and I took care of that by picking him up and putting his entire head into my hand. He's not done it since.

I'm new to chickens, but not new to livestock. I raised a young stallion from a baby and showed him on the appaloosa circuit, so I sort of looked at my rooster the same way. His job is "male" and he needs to be allowed to BE male or he can't do his job properly. Respect for him, but expecting respect back the other direction, and more respect on his end for me than on my end for him....but it's a partnership more than a dominating role.

I like Joe. He's a good rooster. I have no idea how old he is since he was given to me by a friend.

I think he might be a Jersey Giant -- he's huge and black. Lovely fellow.

 

[Yazzo]

shareverwonder:
Bummer.

Just out of curiosity though, did you LET him attack you three times, or did you try to correct his behavior each time?
I think it's safe to say that you're not quite back to square one though....he's probably at least more used to you now, than he was before, so it should be at least a little bit easier.

Tartannik:

That's what this thread is for, although as I said, I may not be able to answer every one so quickly.

First thing: JimBob is one handsome rooster, and your chickens have some awesome names!

Just had to say that. lol

And secondly, I think that your response was one of several 'appropriate' responses. I've had one or two roosters like this who are overly protective of the hens, but they also make GREAT roosters. Let's start by just trying to analyze his actions to better understand the whole scope of the situation, instead of me just recommending something to you. This is probably going to get long and boring though, and may be stuff you already know....just a warning.

I just want to throw some thoughts out there too, so just skip to the end if you'd rather not hear my long-windedness.

Well obviously, roosters will come running like JimBob did when a hen is in distress: either when she's getting hurt, or being bred by another rooster (who is hurting her or not). Of course, the alpha rooster doesn't like either of these things at all (although you may call him the beta rooster if you are the lead rooster....still, they seem to see humans differently, since we aren't always around, shepherding hens, crowing, and such. So the alpha chicken rooster then. But that is a whole new subject on it's own). If the hen is getting hurt, roosters do seem to have some kind of protective instinct and will rush to the hen's aid. Also, the so called "egg-song" is actually what is widely thought by many experts, chicken keepers, and me, from personal observation, to actually be a type of warning call, scaring away predators, leading them away from the nest, or even scoping out a nesting site (you'll notice that they don't always do this, and usually they will do it much more if they are flighty or they deem a nest site to be more dangerous). You'll notice that the rooster(s) will often be the first and sometimes the only ones to join in with the hens. They "badawk!" even if they aren't coming out of a nest of course: the 'bawking' is used to warn of anything suspicious: the faster and more frequent the call, the more dangerous it's deemed. They also warn of hawks and suspicious things, occasionally going so far as to attack those threats. And, of course, when another rooster is breeding, sometimes even 'lower' roosters will come in and try to stop it, while the alpha rooster will often attack the interloper. The other thing the rooster 'protects' the hens from is, of course, other roosters, although you could say that he's just protecting his genes in those cases, not the hen. But 'lower' roosters will often be much less gentle than the lead rooster, probably because they're usually less experienced, they're sometimes overeager, and they're sneaking around behind the lead rooster. The lead rooster will attack any other rooster that tries to breed with 'his' hens even if he isn't hurting them though, although the squawking just makes the hen easier to find. I was thinking that maybe the hen will purposely squawk loudly when she is being bred by a lower ranking rooster, usually against her will, not always because she's getting hurt, but because she actually wants to lead rooster to intercept the lower ranking rooster (it would probably just be instinct, so I doubt she's really thinking about it in that way). As I said, sometimes the lower ranking roosters will intercept a higher ranking rooster too, and will often earn a big peck for it.

ANYWAYS, I don't think JimBob sees you as a lower ranking rooster, since he does seem to respect you since he's never attacked you or your kids (you tell me: does he respect you?). As I mentioned before, even if you are the lead rooster, they do seem to see humans in a different sort of category, since we aren't always there. You're 'higher' than him, but you don't spend all of your time with the hens, you don't chase him off when he's showing them food, breeding, or partaking in other 'alpha rooster duties'. So he sees you as a superior, but he also sees the hens as 'his'. He doesn't like it when you pick them up, probably either because he thinks you're hurting them or breeding with them. I had a very protective, old, experienced rooster who was absolutely wonderful and amazing. He actually did seem to be traumatized when one of the hens got taken away by a hawk, and didn't eat for days! May have been that he was just scared of the hawk, but the point is, he really did seem to care about the hens, and he HATED it when I would make them squawk even a tiny bit. He trusted me enough to be really tame, but he didn't trust me with the hens. He knew that I was 'dominant' towards him, and never tried to attack me otherwise. When I picked up a hen though, he would come peck my foot and sometimes jump at me if I didn't stop, but all in a hesitant way, because he knew I was perfectly capable of hurting him. Sometimes I would just chase him away like you did, when he was getting annoying, but most of the time, I would put the hen on the ground, still holding her, and assure him that I wasn't hurting her. Many times, I would just let the hen go, then catch him. Or, I would catch him while still holding the hen. He was not the kind of rooster that would just become unstable and start attacking me because of that, he was just trying to protect his hens (or his genes), so I certainly didn't get mad at him for it, but I also didn't let him attack me.
I would recommend simply trying one of those things....putting the hen down and showing her to him, picking him up, etc.


As for you being hesitant about picking him up....I'm not huge person or anything myself, but I guess it's all in the technique.....If you do it right, he's not going to be able to hurt you. As I said though, you don't HAVE to pick him up: you can actually keep doing what you were doing.....it'll probably make him respect you more in a way, although it could actually make him scared of you.

I would just say do that, try to pick him up, or put the hen down by him, still holding her. Then, after he's seen the hen isn't getting tortured, push him away if you want.

I agree that it was funny - erm, I mean not good, that he pecked her finger, and that's just one of those behaviors that needs to be corrected.

Well, sorry about the way overly long answer.....I just wanted to write that down somewhere. lol

Hope it helps.....I always feel like I left something out.

There are some things that are just so much easier to show than to write......let me know if it works, and if it doesn't, I'll try to assess the situation more and come up with a different solution.

GentlewoodFarms:

I'm so glad!!

Quote from GentlewoodFarms:

I'm new to chickens, but not new to livestock. I raised a young stallion from a baby and showed him on the appaloosa circuit, so I sort of looked at my rooster the same way. His job is "male" and he needs to be allowed to BE male or he can't do his job properly. Respect for him, but expecting respect back the other direction, and more respect on his end for me than on my end for him....but it's a partnership more than a dominating role.

 

[Cavendish Chickens]

Great post! And I fully agree with how you SHOULD act around them. My husband and I are new to raising chickens. Our roo we hatched, and I have handled him since he was that little tiny baby. My husband has only handled him a couple times back then. (Yet not so long ago.) Now he is 4 months old and my husband is afraid of him. He won't touch him, pick him up, or go too close. If the roo charges at him, he tries to show no fear and charge back at him to show him he's boss. I keep telling him he needs to just grab him and pick him up, but he's scared of being bitten, pecked, or scratched. We have work gloves we wear for handling him. Yes, I do the majority of the handling. And I only just recently started wearing them. After all this time, our roo bit me. I couldn't believe it. It hurt, but didn't leave a mark. So I wear the gloves to avoid more pain. I pick him up, hold him, carry him around, then set him down gently so not to hurt him. We give him, and the girls, treats as often as we can. When we feed them "live" treats, such as meal worms, maggots, crickets, etc, we use tweezers to feed the bugs to him. He knows it's time for a treat when he sees the tweezers. Now as for the girls being tame, well... we have two. The white one will sit on our shoulders, but refuses to be picked up. The brown one pretty much stays away. Only twice, in the month we've had them, has she jumped up and sat on my leg for a brief moment. Then she hurried and jumped back down. She doesn't seem like she knows whether or not to trust us. But when I talk to them they know it. They cock their little heads and look at me. These are some of the smartest birds I've seen. They may not be able to talk like a parrot, but they're extremely intelligent. I have to say that the part where you said to treat them with respect is a very important key in having a relationship with your chickens. Be respectful, be calm, show no fear, become part of their "flock" not just their owner.

 

[xcop32]

Question,after reading the post regarding picking them up, are you supposed to try and catch them as they are attacking you? I have just gotten rid of my 4th rooster because of aggression, I didnt kill them just moved to a bigger farm where the coyotes run free. Now my Tom turkey is charging at myself and the kids, do we try and grab him and pick him up? Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Tartannik]

Yazzo thank you very much for the reply, I read it all and it wasn't the least bit boring, very imformative! The next time i pick up one of his hens I shall try showing her to him or try picking him up!

Hesitant is a great word to describe him as he hasn't actually 'attacked' me, just shouted and came close.
I am going to print off what you wrote and have a good old read and reminder of what I need to do and shall let you know what happens.
I do love the big guy and unless he really attacked someone horribly (especially the kids) he is here for keeps!

Thank you once again
Nik