International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[marchick]

I have always had great success with giving a lot of hugs and kisses to my cockerels and roos. they all have been puppies. sorry but with my experience I even don't believe there are aggressive genes. please note I do have time to spend hours/days to tame my birds.

The funny part is I baby mine. I was thinking that might be part of my problem.

 

[shepherd6567]

I have a big problem and this is Trouble!
View attachment 1508743 View attachment 1508744
This is Logan! AKA ( TROUBLE)!!!! He so far is my best looking Blue Copper cockerel. He is also trying to be very aggressive. He charges and I have to stop and face him to keep him from attacking. Stand there until something draws off his attention. I have to either go in the pen with something he is scared of or I carry my shovel. He is very young to be this aggressive. My husband tells me to beat the tar out of him but that would make things worse. I have thought about separating him. Maybe if he is knocked down in rank. It might fix the problem. He has not yet tagged me but would if given the chance. Any ideas that could help? It would be greatly appreciated!

I catch the ornery ones and carry them aound with me for a bit and make them very uncomfortable in my arms. I think it scares the hell out of them and puts them in a very unnatural and threatening position. May have to do this several times and continue for a while it works on mine.

 

[kfelton0002]

I have found that while handling aggressive roosters more can help in some cases, it doesnt in all of them. The mean cockerel I have free ranging charges and flogs me sometimes. I have handled him and petted on him since he was small and that doesnt help. I think it just makes him more mad. He always attacks from behind so when he does I just turn around and kick the snot out of him or grab him by his tail to let him know Im not afraid of him. That usually settles him down for a few days. Sometimes when he is showing me the broad shoulder and displaying aggressive body language I charge at him to let him know who the boss is. I wont tolerate a mean yard rooster.. if I didnt love his color so much he would already be in my freezer.

 

[marchick]

I catch the ornery ones and carry them aound with me for a bit and make them very uncomfortable in my arms. I think it scares the hell out of them and puts them in a very unnatural and threatening position. May have to do this several times and continue for a while it works on mine.

Great minds think alike. I was thinking about that.

 

[marchick]

I have found that while handling aggressive roosters more can help in some cases, it doesnt in all of them. The mean cockerel I have free ranging charges and flogs me sometimes. I have handled him and petted on him since he was small and that doesnt help. I think it just makes him more mad. He always attacks from behind so when he does I just turn around and kick the snot out of him or grab him by his tail to let him know Im not afraid of him. That usually settles him down for a few days. Sometimes when he is showing me the broad shoulder and displaying aggressive body language I charge at him to let him know who the boss is. I wont tolerate a mean yard rooster.. if I didnt love his color so much he would already be in my freezer.

I will try different things and see if they help and hope it doesn't make it worse. I have 4 other cockerels. Harvey's birds all have good type so at this point I am more looking at color. He has the cleanest chest out of all my Blue Copper cockerels. The rest are way over colored for my liking. They have a long way to go and we will see here in a few more months. I know I can't keep all 5 of them.

 

[shepherd6567]

I have found that while handling aggressive roosters more can help in some cases, it doesnt in all of them. The mean cockerel I have free ranging charges and flogs me sometimes. I have handled him and petted on him since he was small and that doesnt help. I think it just makes him more mad. He always attacks from behind so when he does I just turn around and kick the snot out of him or grab him by his tail to let him know Im not afraid of him. That usually settles him down for a few days. Sometimes when he is showing me the broad shoulder and displaying aggressive body language I charge at him to let him know who the boss is. I wont tolerate a mean yard rooster.. if I didnt love his color so much he would already be in my freezer.

I would not suggest charging him or kicking at them. This is a normal aggressive move by cockerels. This is the reason I put them in a very uncomfortable position when I carry them around. I carry them by their legs upsidedown for a bit or hold them by their wings folded back and this is something that I feel is life threataning to them so it really makes them fearful of you.

 

[kfelton0002]

I would not suggest charging him or kicking at them. This is a normal aggressive move by cockerels. This is the reason I put them in a very uncomfortable position when I carry them around. I carry them by their legs upsidedown for a bit or hold them by their wings folded back and this is something that I feel is life threataning to them so it really makes them fearful of you.

It may not work for everyone but it works for me for aggessive cockerels. By picking him up and cuddling him he charges me daily so I really feel that just makes this particular cockerel worse. He cant stand being held. I do carry him by his legs some when he annoys me. I charge at him to snap him out of acting aggressive toward me. I kick him when he attacks me. An eye for an eye. Lol By reminding him exactly who the boss is occasionally the aggressive behavior is sporadic and not as frequent. If he is fearful of me, he has good reason. Fear may keep him out of the soup pot. I raise gamefowl so an aggressive Marans doesnt scare me in the least. It is merely a mild nuisance. The Games make him look like a little kitten. Lol

Here are my recent battle injuries from grumpy gamecocks. They get very mean during the molt when we handle them.

 

[kfelton0002]

Probably 90% of the time the cockerel and I co-exist peacefully with no riff raff. The other 10% of the time he likes to sneak up behind me while Im doing chores outside and flog me. Only then is when he gets a kick.. and I dont kick him hard enough to injure him. Just enough to send a message. That usually does the trick for about a week or so until he gets brave enough to try again.

Since Naked Neck, one of my back up cockerels has white underfluff and white spots in his ear lobes I have decided to use the mean bird as a breeder instead because of his nice mass, dark underfluff, and color. The cockerel with the squirrel tail will be going to freezer camp. As much as I hate to use the mean cockerel, you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[marchick]

It may not work for everyone but it works for me for aggessive cockerels. By picking him up and cuddling him he charges me daily so I really feel that just makes this particular cockerel worse. He cant stand being held. I do carry him by his legs some when he annoys me. I charge at him to snap him out of acting aggressive toward me. I kick him when he attacks me. An eye for an eye. Lol By reminding him exactly who the boss is occasionally the aggressive behavior is sporadic and not as frequent. If he is fearful of me, he has good reason. Fear may keep him out of the soup pot. I raise gamefowl so an aggressive Marans doesnt scare me in the least. It is merely a mild nuisance. The Games make him look like a little kitten. Lol

Here are my recent battle injuries from grumpy gamecocks. They get very mean during the molt when we handle them.

View attachment 1510214

Ouch! If it comes to battle scars like that! Soup pot time for this Cockeral! He actually was better today.

 

[kfelton0002]

Here are a couple cockerels I have free ranging. Pardon the purple on the larger cockerel. The young Games like to feather pick tails so I had to spray him with blue kote. He has a white juvenile wing feather that the blue kote got on and that is what the purple is. He is the offspring of Max and #8 (line C) and carries her dark egg genes.

The darker cockerel (green leg band) is from Mashburn x Sheraz. All of the chicks from the Mashburn rooster have good straight keels despite the Mashburn rooster having a crooked keel. They are a separate project line and will be watched closely for crooked keels in the future. His offspring are going to have a good deep copper shade, so that is the goal to darken underfluff under the hackles.

I have several cockerels this size, and a few more younger ones still in the brooders so fingers crossed for a couple good ones.