I see this thread is from January. It seems as if the situation might be resolved, but I’m not sure that interpreting rooster behavior was fully explored. I feel compelled to respond simply because I like to explore animal behavior of many types. And I have explored this particular behavior pattern at my place quite a bit.
I have raised Belgian D’Anvers bantams since 1998 (1995 if you count the first ones I got from a hatchery). Belgian D’Anvers are likely one of the most universally human-aggressive breeds I have dealt with ( for males, specifically, but also some females )- and many D’Anvers breeders claim that this temperament is so endemic to the breed it cannot be selected away from (I do not agree with this, but it is significantly more difficult to breed away from when every time you out cross, bad temperament in males is brought back). This gives me tons and tons of experience with aggressive males….
When selecting for lower aggression, one of the first things I attempt to do is rank my males on aggression level. In order to do that, I try to understand not only the magnitude of their agression but the most likely environmental drivers behind it. If you want to make meaningful selection you have to know why a rooster is attacking, and which environmental parameters are likely to exacerbate this behavior versus mitigate it. Whatever environmental circumstances tend to exacerbate aggression, I try to expose all roosters to maximize human aggression. This may seem counter intuitive, but if you want to select against aggression, you have to give roosters every chance to show their genetic aggressiveness to you so you can assess everyone on a level playing field. The great thing about my rooster camp, is that I have learned a lot of things that can potentially also mitigate their behavior. Please understand that I have experienced most of these things with D’Anvers only, so I’m not sure how completely they apply to other chicken breeds. But chicken aggression and the pecking order is quite ingrained, so I imagine there are several correlations.
In a nutshell, I have learned the following:
Roosters that are imprinted on people and raised as pets are more likely to be human aggressive as adults. Roosters kept in individual pens or as solo roosters are more likely to be aggressive. Roosters kept in pens that are eye-level are more likely to attack. Roosters kept in smaller eye-level pens are more likely to aggressive than rooster kept in larger eye-level pens. Rooster are more likely to attack if you feed hens in front of them. Roosters are more likely to attack when their testicles are enlarging in the spring time ( if this made you raise an eyebrow, consider that I have butchered many males at various time of the year and I have noticed the male reproductive organs undergo a period of inactivity in winter, just like the hens- this may be why some males are sterile during the winter until spring kick starts their testosterone again). Roosters are more likely to attack after they reach a year of age or older. Roosters are more likely to attack if you are wearing unfamiliar attire or if you are a new person. Roosters are more likely to attack if you turn your back to them. Roosters are more likely to attack if there is only one person. Roosters are more likely to attack you if you look small. Roosters are more likely to attack if you move quickly/unpredictably/erratically. Roosters are more likely to attack if your hands are full or you are otherwise preoccupied. Roosters are more likely to attack if you are talking; the louder your voice the more they seem to want to spur your face ( is my singing really that bad?
). This seems especially true if you are looking at them while you talk/sing and your face is close - it is almost as if they view it as a direct challenge. It doesn’t matter if you are saying nice things about their appearance.
How many of those things listed above do kids do?
Fear is a major environmental inhibitor of genetic human aggression, so if you make a rooster afraid, he will be less likely to attack until the fear wears off. HOWEVER, it has been my experience that many roosters will need to be reminded periodically, and that using physical aggression to instill this fear can do one of two things: 1. In a small percentage, the interaction will trigger PTSD in the rooster and they will get smaller and avoid you or be unpleasantly fearful of you - this may last their entire life time or 2. Will cause the rooster to view you as an alpha chicken and encourage them to try again later. Using an object other than your hands can be preferable to force them to keep their distance, but Roosters will learn to look for it and attack you when it’s not there.
Now, the type of aggression that is most problematic are from males who view you as another rooster. These males seemingly will exhaust every opportunity to assert their dominance over you. Except if you scare them with a counter attack. Then they will go PTSD or will avoid you only temporarily and then be very likely come after you again at a later date. When they do it will be craftier, they will often hit harder, and they will often be harder to discourage the next time. Attacking back is one of the surest ways to either scare a rooster for good or to train them to be mean. What can start off as innocent defensiveness can easily turn into this pecking order competition by you attacking back. For all my effort going towards eliciting aggression, this is the one thing I try not do in my flock. In all fairness, it is difficult not to at least block yourself from an incoming attack to your face, so even I screw up here, but for the most part, I try not to physically respond. When a rooster attacks me, I have trained myself to freeze in place and wait it out whenever I have the time to do so. If I don’t have time I catch the rooster and hold him gently while I finish chores in that pen. I do so, until the rooster loses interest that means no talking no looking at the rooster, no moving until he walks away. You’re playing chicken. For real. He will eventually turn and walk away- then you resume whatever you were doing. But hopefully without him trying to attack again.
It sounds to me like your rooster was not attacking in a pecking order level way. This is great news because it sounds like his attacks were done because he was alarmed by something your children were doing. it could’ve just been a fact that they were unfamiliar, but take another look at my list of things that make roosters more likely to attack. If your children were doing anything on that list, or likely to do things on that list in the future, you may want to keep them out of the chicken pen or get him out of the pen before they go in.
My experience seems to indicate that putting a rooster in a dog kennel actually makes it more likely that they will turn aggressive. So this might not be a great solution if it means you have to get in your roosters space every time you care for him. But it would be possible to make a special rooster pen outside with your hens. Spread some treats in there and trap him before the kids go in. You could use a rope attached to a drop door so you could lure him in or lure him outside and close it before going in.
Finally, invest in a good squirt gun. Super soaker might work, but I just use a regular old squirt bottle from Walmart set to stream. Roosters behavior is easily disrupted by a good stream of water straight to the face (yes, it has to be the face because that is the only place they can tell it is water- feathers protect everywhere else). No, it won’t hurt them. The best part? They don’t seem to be able to interpret it as aggression or even necessarily as coming from you so it decreases aggression WITHOUT teaching them to be meaner to you in the future.
Edited to add: I have had a few roosters that are not phased by this water treatment and I always end up culling them. Sometimes water treatment has to be repeated every spring, or for a few weeks in a row. But generally the aggression does wane if you stick to it and avoid being physically aggressive, eventually, with this treatment. For my birds at least. This could also be because if it doesn’t work, I usually end up eliminating the male from my breeding pens. But if you want to give a male a chance, I would urge you to consider it.
Hopefully this post has been interesting to you, even if it is well after the fact.
I have raised Belgian D’Anvers bantams since 1998 (1995 if you count the first ones I got from a hatchery). Belgian D’Anvers are likely one of the most universally human-aggressive breeds I have dealt with ( for males, specifically, but also some females )- and many D’Anvers breeders claim that this temperament is so endemic to the breed it cannot be selected away from (I do not agree with this, but it is significantly more difficult to breed away from when every time you out cross, bad temperament in males is brought back). This gives me tons and tons of experience with aggressive males….
When selecting for lower aggression, one of the first things I attempt to do is rank my males on aggression level. In order to do that, I try to understand not only the magnitude of their agression but the most likely environmental drivers behind it. If you want to make meaningful selection you have to know why a rooster is attacking, and which environmental parameters are likely to exacerbate this behavior versus mitigate it. Whatever environmental circumstances tend to exacerbate aggression, I try to expose all roosters to maximize human aggression. This may seem counter intuitive, but if you want to select against aggression, you have to give roosters every chance to show their genetic aggressiveness to you so you can assess everyone on a level playing field. The great thing about my rooster camp, is that I have learned a lot of things that can potentially also mitigate their behavior. Please understand that I have experienced most of these things with D’Anvers only, so I’m not sure how completely they apply to other chicken breeds. But chicken aggression and the pecking order is quite ingrained, so I imagine there are several correlations.
In a nutshell, I have learned the following:
Roosters that are imprinted on people and raised as pets are more likely to be human aggressive as adults. Roosters kept in individual pens or as solo roosters are more likely to be aggressive. Roosters kept in pens that are eye-level are more likely to attack. Roosters kept in smaller eye-level pens are more likely to aggressive than rooster kept in larger eye-level pens. Rooster are more likely to attack if you feed hens in front of them. Roosters are more likely to attack when their testicles are enlarging in the spring time ( if this made you raise an eyebrow, consider that I have butchered many males at various time of the year and I have noticed the male reproductive organs undergo a period of inactivity in winter, just like the hens- this may be why some males are sterile during the winter until spring kick starts their testosterone again). Roosters are more likely to attack after they reach a year of age or older. Roosters are more likely to attack if you are wearing unfamiliar attire or if you are a new person. Roosters are more likely to attack if you turn your back to them. Roosters are more likely to attack if there is only one person. Roosters are more likely to attack you if you look small. Roosters are more likely to attack if you move quickly/unpredictably/erratically. Roosters are more likely to attack if your hands are full or you are otherwise preoccupied. Roosters are more likely to attack if you are talking; the louder your voice the more they seem to want to spur your face ( is my singing really that bad?
). This seems especially true if you are looking at them while you talk/sing and your face is close - it is almost as if they view it as a direct challenge. It doesn’t matter if you are saying nice things about their appearance.How many of those things listed above do kids do?
Fear is a major environmental inhibitor of genetic human aggression, so if you make a rooster afraid, he will be less likely to attack until the fear wears off. HOWEVER, it has been my experience that many roosters will need to be reminded periodically, and that using physical aggression to instill this fear can do one of two things: 1. In a small percentage, the interaction will trigger PTSD in the rooster and they will get smaller and avoid you or be unpleasantly fearful of you - this may last their entire life time or 2. Will cause the rooster to view you as an alpha chicken and encourage them to try again later. Using an object other than your hands can be preferable to force them to keep their distance, but Roosters will learn to look for it and attack you when it’s not there.
Now, the type of aggression that is most problematic are from males who view you as another rooster. These males seemingly will exhaust every opportunity to assert their dominance over you. Except if you scare them with a counter attack. Then they will go PTSD or will avoid you only temporarily and then be very likely come after you again at a later date. When they do it will be craftier, they will often hit harder, and they will often be harder to discourage the next time. Attacking back is one of the surest ways to either scare a rooster for good or to train them to be mean. What can start off as innocent defensiveness can easily turn into this pecking order competition by you attacking back. For all my effort going towards eliciting aggression, this is the one thing I try not do in my flock. In all fairness, it is difficult not to at least block yourself from an incoming attack to your face, so even I screw up here, but for the most part, I try not to physically respond. When a rooster attacks me, I have trained myself to freeze in place and wait it out whenever I have the time to do so. If I don’t have time I catch the rooster and hold him gently while I finish chores in that pen. I do so, until the rooster loses interest that means no talking no looking at the rooster, no moving until he walks away. You’re playing chicken. For real. He will eventually turn and walk away- then you resume whatever you were doing. But hopefully without him trying to attack again.
It sounds to me like your rooster was not attacking in a pecking order level way. This is great news because it sounds like his attacks were done because he was alarmed by something your children were doing. it could’ve just been a fact that they were unfamiliar, but take another look at my list of things that make roosters more likely to attack. If your children were doing anything on that list, or likely to do things on that list in the future, you may want to keep them out of the chicken pen or get him out of the pen before they go in.
My experience seems to indicate that putting a rooster in a dog kennel actually makes it more likely that they will turn aggressive. So this might not be a great solution if it means you have to get in your roosters space every time you care for him. But it would be possible to make a special rooster pen outside with your hens. Spread some treats in there and trap him before the kids go in. You could use a rope attached to a drop door so you could lure him in or lure him outside and close it before going in.
Finally, invest in a good squirt gun. Super soaker might work, but I just use a regular old squirt bottle from Walmart set to stream. Roosters behavior is easily disrupted by a good stream of water straight to the face (yes, it has to be the face because that is the only place they can tell it is water- feathers protect everywhere else). No, it won’t hurt them. The best part? They don’t seem to be able to interpret it as aggression or even necessarily as coming from you so it decreases aggression WITHOUT teaching them to be meaner to you in the future.
Edited to add: I have had a few roosters that are not phased by this water treatment and I always end up culling them. Sometimes water treatment has to be repeated every spring, or for a few weeks in a row. But generally the aggression does wane if you stick to it and avoid being physically aggressive, eventually, with this treatment. For my birds at least. This could also be because if it doesn’t work, I usually end up eliminating the male from my breeding pens. But if you want to give a male a chance, I would urge you to consider it.
Hopefully this post has been interesting to you, even if it is well after the fact.
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. And cockerels hatched/raised by hens imprint on hens and view humans completely differently. Imprinting can’t be underestimated, I think it’s the most important factor contributing to rooster behavior.
