One of the best resources I've found on dealing with roosters

[RadEggs]

I agree no one should ever hit or strike a rooster. IMO it is more humane to euthanize a man-fighter.

I don't really agree with your linked article about rooster socialization. Chickens don't have big brains and 99% of their behavior is from genetics or imprinting. I have not heard of anyone successfully training a mean rooster to be nice.

Chickens are actualy as intelligent as dogs. And you can train them. I know cause I have. Watch the Bock and Roll band audition for America's Got Talent, soooooo good!

 

[Rachel TW]

You seem to think I have not already tried. In one of my old threads, I spent YEARS trying tame a tom turkey. I raised him from a poult and he imprinted on me as a sibling rival, so he wanted to fight me. Yes I used the "tree" method and let him beat the **** out of me while I sat with my head covered. Bad idea, turkey fights last for days. We went for long walks around the neighborhood, that worked well. As soon as we stopped he would try to kill me. I took him to the vet for a hormone implant, it did nothing. His attacks got worse every year, he started escaping the yard to attack the neighbors. I had to keep him confined in a pen, he fought the fence until he was bloody. Was he a "bad" turkey? No, he was born in the wrong environment and I could not change enough things in the world to make him happy.

I asked you to tell me about how YOU trained an "ultra-aggressive" rooster into a "nice" one, because I would like to learn for myself. Generalizations aren't helpful because reality is not as simple as an internet article. If the Featherbrain methods are like "magic", everyone would be doing that. You say that all it took was "treats and a little empathy", now let's hear more detail so that others can repeat your process and save more lives in the future.

I am sorry to hear about your experience with your turkey. I don't know anything about turkeys, so I really can't comment on that at all. i only have experience with roosters.

I don't know to get more specific than the featherbrain article - that is literally what I do, step-by-step. Do you want me to retype the steps and try to make them more concise? I feel like the longer article would be more helpful than that.

I did just put out a message to my area's facebook page asking if anybody has an aggressive rooster I can work with. I feel like maybe if I could just set up a video camera to show what I do, maybe that would be more helpful?

 

[Rachel TW]

Chickens are actualy as intelligent as dogs. And you can train them. I know cause I have. Watch the Bock and Roll band audition for America's Got Talent, soooooo good!

You're so right - there's lots of research on chicken intelligence. They're extremely trainable because they're smart, social, and food-oriented.

 

[Rachel TW]

You seem to think I have not already tried. In one of my old threads, I spent YEARS trying tame a tom turkey. I raised him from a poult and he imprinted on me as a sibling rival, so he wanted to fight me. Yes I used the "tree" method and let him beat the **** out of me while I sat with my head covered. Bad idea, turkey fights last for days. We went for long walks around the neighborhood, that worked well. As soon as we stopped he would try to kill me. I took him to the vet for a hormone implant, it did nothing. His attacks got worse every year, he started escaping the yard to attack the neighbors. I had to keep him confined in a pen, he fought the fence until he was bloody. Was he a "bad" turkey? No, he was born in the wrong environment and I could not change enough things in the world to make him happy.

I asked you to tell me about how YOU trained an "ultra-aggressive" rooster into a "nice" one, because I would like to learn for myself. Generalizations aren't helpful because reality is not as simple as an internet article. If the Featherbrain methods are like "magic", everyone would be doing that. You say that all it took was "treats and a little empathy", now let's hear more detail so that others can repeat your process and save more lives in the future.

Also, I disagree with you that everyone would be doing the methods if they worked. Most people don't even know they exist. Additionally, training takes work and effort and most people aren't up for that. And I would estimate a huge portion of the chicken community is raising their chickens for production. Taking time and effort to work with roosters when they kill a lot of their chickens anyway makes no sense for them.

 

[starryhen]

Understanding Roosters

The above web page has been one of the best resources I've ever had on how to manage a rooster. The problem I found with most of the online forms whether it be backyard chickens or another one is that so often the advice on dealing with the natural aggression of a rooster tends to land of Grog the caveman.

I'm sure you know what I mean- someone will ask on a forum what to do with their adolescent rooster who's being aggressive. Unfortunately most of the so-called advice, devolves into caveman speak. Like, you got to show them your boss and rough them up if they come for you. The latter is such crappy advice cuz all it does is escalate the situation and before you know it this person who has followed that poorly considered advice is now asking about where they can rehome their rooster or dispatch it- read kill the rooster.

I'm definitely a guy guy- I'm a flight instructor and pilot for over 24 years and even I knew when I read such advice about 'showing them who's boss' that was just going to be a recipe for failure.

Absolutely love my rooster and he was definitely an accident he was supposed to be a hen. Having never had a rooster before there was a big learning curve and the preponderance of bad advice on many of the online chicken forums definitely wasn't resonating with me.

The odd thing about some of the advice is it always sounded like some advisors were proud of getting rough with a rooster which is a creature great many times smaller than you. It always struck me as some miscreant adult being proud that they could knock out a 5 year old child with a punch? I mean geez in both cases you're so many times stronger and larger what do you think your rate of success is going to be? So suffice it to say that I decided to put away Notions of grunting and responding to the name of Grog to prove myself over a rooster.?!?

The above shared link is one of a couple of web resources that I found which I found very very helpful and forging a reasonable and respectful relationship with my rooster.

Anyway hope some others find it helpful that may not be aware of the link.

Great comments. One can train roosters. I haven't had much luck with one who was already aggressive. We have trained roosters and they were mild mannered and there were others who started attacking us and had to be rehomed. We have had very smart and cooperative roosters who viewed us as partners to protect the hens and they were wonderful to have around. I'm sure different breeds and different breeding lines have more less aggression in their roosters.

 

[SarahGfa]

I don't know to get more specific than the featherbrain article - that is literally what I do, step-by-step. Do you want me to retype the steps and try to make them more concise? I feel like the longer article would be more helpful than that.

No, I meant an actual case like what I typed out about my turkey experience. Tell me about your "ultra aggressive" RIR, why was he so aggressive, what changed, where is he today, etc. Help me see it from the rooster's perspective so I can improve my empathy

 

[sdm111]

No, I meant an actual case like what I typed out about my turkey experience. Tell me about your "ultra aggressive" RIR, why was he so aggressive, what changed, where is he today, etc. Help me see it from the rooster's perspective so I can improve my empathy

I found out the problem. She Said her Facebook group, that explains alot

 

[TexasBlues]

Ever see the chicken training camps?

I might be wrong, but I think no roosters used in the camps.

 

[mikeburns]

Understanding Roosters

The above web page has been one of the best resources I've ever had on how to manage a rooster. The problem I found with most of the online forms whether it be backyard chickens or another one is that so often the advice on dealing with the natural aggression of a rooster tends to land of Grog the caveman.

I'm sure you know what I mean- someone will ask on a forum what to do with their adolescent rooster who's being aggressive. Unfortunately most of the so-called advice, devolves into caveman speak. Like, you got to show them your boss and rough them up if they come for you. The latter is such crappy advice cuz all it does is escalate the situation and before you know it this person who has followed that poorly considered advice is now asking about where they can rehome their rooster or dispatch it- read kill the rooster.

I'm definitely a guy guy- I'm a flight instructor and pilot for over 24 years and even I knew when I read such advice about 'showing them who's boss' that was just going to be a recipe for failure.

Absolutely love my rooster and he was definitely an accident he was supposed to be a hen. Having never had a rooster before there was a big learning curve and the preponderance of bad advice on many of the online chicken forums definitely wasn't resonating with me.

The odd thing about some of the advice is it always sounded like some advisors were proud of getting rough with a rooster which is a creature great many times smaller than you. It always struck me as some miscreant adult being proud that they could knock out a 5 year old child with a punch? I mean geez in both cases you're so many times stronger and larger what do you think your rate of success is going to be? So suffice it to say that I decided to put away Notions of grunting and responding to the name of Grog to prove myself over a rooster.?!?

The above shared link is one of a couple of web resources that I found which I found very very helpful and forging a reasonable and respectful relationship with my rooster.

Anyway hope some others find it helpful that may not be aware of the link.

While I would never want to harm my roosters, or see them come to harm, I think that you may find my experience interesting. This past summer, I came to the realization that my internet bought small coop was not large enough to service my expanded flock. So, I decided to build them a larger one. The coop was to be attached to one end of my 9x16 roofed and meshed run, and I was going to build it using scrap wood that was reclaimed from a deck replacement. I planned the enclosure and then set to work. I found that whenever I was working from inside the run, the largest of my 3 roosters would act aggressively towards me, literally launching an assault on me. Since most of the work was done outside the run, it wasn't a big deal, but I let the birds "free range" in my backyard during the nicer months. One day as I was working on the coop, while the birds were out and about, the rooster started aggressing towards me. Not wanting any part of him, I tried to walk away, and he followed and kept on attacking. This is what I did, and he does not attack me any more. When he would rear up to strike, just as he came in, I raised my foot to the same level as his incoming chest, an as he made contact with sole of my shoe, I would give him a gentle yet very firm push with my foot, forceful enough to push him backwards several feet. After doing this a couple of times, (he was never injured by this), he seemed to get the message that it would not be a wise move to continue his aggressive behavior. Since that day, he has been very tolerant of my comings and goings. Pictured is my run and new coop.

 

[chookcomplex]

Understanding Roosters

The above web page has been one of the best resources I've ever had on how to manage a rooster. The problem I found with most of the online forms whether it be backyard chickens or another one is that so often the advice on dealing with the natural aggression of a rooster tends to land of Grog the caveman.

I'm sure you know what I mean- someone will ask on a forum what to do with their adolescent rooster who's being aggressive. Unfortunately most of the so-called advice, devolves into caveman speak. Like, you got to show them your boss and rough them up if they come for you. The latter is such crappy advice cuz all it does is escalate the situation and before you know it this person who has followed that poorly considered advice is now asking about where they can rehome their rooster or dispatch it- read kill the rooster.

I'm definitely a guy guy- I'm a flight instructor and pilot for over 24 years and even I knew when I read such advice about 'showing them who's boss' that was just going to be a recipe for failure.

Absolutely love my rooster and he was definitely an accident he was supposed to be a hen. Having never had a rooster before there was a big learning curve and the preponderance of bad advice on many of the online chicken forums definitely wasn't resonating with me.

The odd thing about some of the advice is it always sounded like some advisors were proud of getting rough with a rooster which is a creature great many times smaller than you. It always struck me as some miscreant adult being proud that they could knock out a 5 year old child with a punch? I mean geez in both cases you're so many times stronger and larger what do you think your rate of success is going to be? So suffice it to say that I decided to put away Notions of grunting and responding to the name of Grog to prove myself over a rooster.?!?

The above shared link is one of a couple of web resources that I found which I found very very helpful and forging a reasonable and respectful relationship with my rooster.

Anyway hope some others find it helpful that may not be aware of the link.

Here are my anecdotes:
2 Cream Legbar roosters one the son of the other. Raised relatively unbullied by other hens and raised as the sole rooster, I handfed them and petted them often in an attempt to acclimatise them to touch. One somewhat avoided me, the other i raised from chick often ran up to me for food and attention. The moment puberty hit and they started mounting, both turned outright aggressive, running up and pecking me, never a flog or spur but furious vicious pecks.

Looking for a strategy, I tried picking him up until they calmed down (they wouldn't and I didn't feel comfortable holding them for more than 5 minutes) also the holding them down with the head and body kept low to the ground in the attempt to induce submission to another rooster (didn't work, they rarely submit and relax, they always try to struggle out of it even something as long as 4 or 5 minutes, after release, they either stopped all further aggression for the day or on bad days they would just resume aggressive lunging and pecking and without fail, their "challenges" would continue the immediate day after). With the first rooster there was a period where the holding down worked for temporary period but eventually the daily "challenges" would repeat with regularity.

Now I have another Cream Legbar rooster, now the grandson of the other roosters, this time on advice, I went hands off on the rooster chick, didn't go out of my way to hand feed him, didn't touch him. I noticed they just do normal chicken behaviour without handrearing thatis, to be quite touch avoidant and giving you wide berth when you walk around or approach to the level of flightiness. Also, this chick growing up was bullied by the hens quite strongly, not to the point of injury but hens were quite mean (these hens were quite harassed by the last roosters) pecking and chasing after him conditioning him to be quite flighty.

Now this rooster has grown up to mature age, is mounting regularly, absolutely no aggression so far, no pecking yet, still very avoidant of touch and of a human presence. This is compared to, the other roosters who would just see your approach no matter how slow as a challenge and rush to meet you with a harsh pecking. I can only speculate this to be a combination of personality and upbringing.