Mean rooster

[richred1]

Ok. So, I know that roosters inheritly are the protectors of the flock. But I guess my questions are: Do only some mellow out as they get older? Do some get more aggressive with age? Is the current behavior only a inkling of what is yet to come?
Reason I'm asking:
I have a Splash Orpington rooster who I have raised since he was 4 days old, he is now 9 months old. He has for the last 3 months been super aggressive with me. Trying to spur me at every turn. He is very bold about it: he looks me straight in the eyes at flys at me. He once flew at me 6 or 7 times in a row.

 

[pippo]

You might have to teach him you are boss when you're there. I am not sure what other options there are to teach them this but if you can pick him up and hold him under your arm until he settles down, even if it takes a few minutes, this will show him you are higher in the pecking order to him and hopefully he will stop attacking you when you walk in.

 

[chicksurreal]

In my experience, cockerels who are getting to the point where their hormones are raging are more aggressive at that time and need some time to settle down. I've gotten to the point where I ignore the behavior, letting them know that it has no effect on me. It used to startle me and I would chase them around to show them who is boss, but not any more.

My roosters treat me completely different than they do my husband. I believe it's because my husband feels the need to answer every challenge with a challenge of his own, keeping the cycle going. My husband has been spurred, flown at and flogged many times while I have never had one draw blood on me. Most of the time the only thing a cockerel will do with me is run up at me and maybe hit me from behind with a wing. They soon learn that it has no effect and drop the behavior. My roos will eat out of my hand and let me tend to the girls when they need it with no more than a bit of a sound and watching to make sure all is well. I don't go out of my way to develop a relationship with the roos, but they seem to accept my role in their lives pretty well and I do love them.

 

[alleydebbie]

I have a RIR rooster that is becoming aggressive! I carry a water bottle with me and when he comes up to me I spray him and he goes away. Or I don't allow him to scare me! I reach down and pick him up and rub his neck and comb and waddle....I think he likes it!!! haha

 

[Folly's place]

I have zero tolerance for cockrels or adult cocks who are human aggressive. You can develop good bird raising skills, which will help cockrels grow up better, BUT the jerks can't be fixed, IMO.. Many tries, and constant danger, if not for you, for every other human who shows up. Children can have bad facial injuries, and lost eyeballs, and adults huge nasty wounds on legs. Eliminate the idiots who attack you, and enjoy the smart boys who spend their time watching for predators and treating their hens. Mary

 

[azygous]

There are as many different opinions about aggressive roosters and what to do about them as there are people with roosters, and it can be almost as dangerous discussing the topic as it is religion and politics.

You need to ask yourself some questions before deciding what to do about your aggressive cockerel. One is, am I afraid of my cockerel? If the answer is yes, it would be best to simply re-home him or butcher and freeze him for a meal later. Fear makes it nearly impossible to properly train a cockerel to respect you.

If you are not afraid of him, then you need to ask yourself, do I want to commit to the time it will take to train him? Training cockerels is a lot like training a dog. It requires being consistent and putting in the time each day to work with him to correct his bad behavior each time it occurs.

If there are children around, can you be sure that he can be kept from being a danger to them? That is a deal breaker in many situations. It's simply not worth taking a chance on your child being injured, and make no mistake, aggressive roos are dangerous.

So, if you've answered no to the last two questions, then you really need to get rid of the cockerel, even though most cockerels do tend to calm down somewhat after they reach a year and a half to two years, but without training you have zero hope of ever being able to trust him.

 

[chicksurreal]

There are as many different opinions about aggressive roosters and what to do about them as there are people with roosters, and it can be almost as dangerous discussing the topic as it is religion and politics.

You need to ask yourself some questions before deciding what to do about your aggressive cockerel. One is, am I afraid of my cockerel? If the answer is yes, it would be best to simply re-home him or butcher and freeze him for a meal later. Fear makes it nearly impossible to properly train a cockerel to respect you.

If you are not afraid of him, then you need to ask yourself, do I want to commit to the time it will take to train him? Training cockerels is a lot like training a dog. It requires being consistent and putting in the time each day to work with him to correct his bad behavior each time it occurs.

If there are children around, can you be sure that he can be kept from being a danger to them? That is a deal breaker in many situations. It's simply not worth taking a chance on your child being injured, and make no mistake, aggressive roos are dangerous.

So, if you've answered no to the last two questions, then you really need to get rid of the cockerel, even though most cockerels do tend to calm down somewhat after they reach a year and a half to two years, but without training you have zero hope of ever being able to trust him.

Some very good points here. I agree that everyone has their own opinion about this issue and it can become quite heated in debate. Lol!

If I had children that would be exposed to a cockerel that would possibly harm them, that would be a deal breaker for me too. I don't have to worry about anyone but my husband and myself being exposed, so I'm willing to take the time and effort to see it through, but I see the other side of it too. Not everyone is in the position or of a mind to deal with what amounts to a feathered bundle of testosterone with beak, claws and spurs.

I used to be terrified of roosters due to a childhood incident and had to make an effort to get over it, very glad I did.

 

[slordaz]

If we didn't know our terror BR rooster we would have thought someone had changed him out with another while we weren't looking, he had the whole flock including the duckzilla and the drake scared. He wouldn't dare attack us as he was scared of the broom but needed to calm him down for sake of the rest of the flock, he was trying to breed anything and everything that moved when he matured including the youngest chicks and the drake.

Simple solution is we got some older hens, not much choice around here this time of year but we found 2 brown leghorns and 2 white leghorns and put them in the coop while he was in chicken jail in the middle of it. Next morning we tried to let him out and was his same old flock terror. So we put him back in chicken jail and proceeded to to give the hens his favorite treats, watermelon and bell pepper, while he only got a handful of grains. After they finished we tried letting him out again and he made the mistake of trying to terrorize the older leghorn hens, didn't even see it coming as he's not used to flighty hens, they pulled a coordinated aerial peck from four different directions, he is now the best behaved rooster you could ask for after they schooled him on how to to treat the others.The younger 2 roosters took note too don't make the hens mad.

The leghorns don't take flight to much now unless they are in danger and are free ranging with the others.

Te rest of the flock readily accepted them as he wasn't terrorizing the rest of the flock anymore.

 

[fshinggrl]

I have zero tolerance for cockrels or adult cocks who are human aggressive. You can develop good bird raising skills, which will help cockrels grow up better, BUT the jerks can't be fixed, IMO.. Many tries, and constant danger, if not for you, for every other human who shows up. Children can have bad facial injuries, and lost eyeballs, and adults huge nasty wounds on legs. Eliminate the idiots who attack you, and enjoy the smart boys who spend their time watching for predators and treating their hens. Mary

I agree with this. I've had aggressive roosters before (Welsummers I hatched) and I got rid of them. They would spar with each other and SOMETIMES puff up and head towards me. They never attacked.

 

[richred1]

I really appreciate all the replies. Like I said before I've had this guy since he was 4 days old, treated him no different than any of the others. He's a speckled Oprington and he's quite beautiful, I was kind of favoring him a bit. Just in my mind, didn't show it outwardly. He was quite fond of sitting on my lap until he starting getting his "manliness".
I'm really starting to think I may have to give up on him.