Rooster will not stay away from the road

[GirlsHuntToo]

I have been having trouble with my rooster Diego. He loves to go up by the road and he goes across the road too. Of course, he takes his girlfriends with him. lol Just yesterday he almost got Zebra and Yukie run over by a grain truck. He just will not stop for anything. I have a stick right by the front door. Every time he goes up there, I go up and smack him with the stick. Give him three minutes and he will be right back up there again. With Nellie, Zebra, Casey, Cuddles, Yukie, and Zebra.
So my question is - How do I get him to stop!?

 

[azygous]

Keep smacking him with a stick, and it won't be long that he's stopped. He'll be crippled or dead,.

 

[Krugerrand]

Any idea as to why he wants to cross the road?

To get to the other side, or course!

 

[Folly's place]

As animal owners, one of our responsibilities is to keep our animals at home, not have them visit the neighbor's. Fencing, a secure run, and clipping those wing feathers, all good suggestions. We have lovely near neighbors, who absolutely do not want our chickens on their property. We've fixed the fence between ours and theirs, and have many better areas for our flock when they free range.
Mary

 

[azygous]

Roosters are easily trained with consistent discipline. They are incapable of moral value judgements. Roosters respond to discipline that demonstrates to them that you are dominate. This is not the same as punishment for bad behavior. Therefore, you need to show your rooster that he must remain in his yard by consistently showing him you are dominate by driving him back towards his yard with the force of your presence and forward motion.

To carry this training through and make it stick, you must take an hour or so to thwart his forward movement when he starts to leave the yard. By repeatedly blocking him by standing in his way and walking toward him to direct his movements back into the yard, he will come to understand that he must stay in the yard because you are the boss of him and that his freedom is limited to his yard and not beyond. This is called establishing boundaries. Roosters, like dogs, respond to boundaries.

It really is that simple. Hitting with a stick does not register as dominance so much as it instills fear which is the opposite of trust. After almost two decades with roosters in my flock, I've discovered that mutual trust is far more valuable in controlling rooster behavior than fear. To establish mutual trust, it requires him to accept that you have a role as flock boss, and he has a role as flock protector. Each of you must not interfere with the other's role. This means hands off when he is around his hens, mating, etc. You will ignore him as long as he remains within his boundaries. If he steps outside his boundaries, you much reinforce the training again. A good rooster should not need constant monitoring. A good roo will internalize this training and you should be able to trust that he's going to continue to remain inside his boundaries.

 

[K0k0shka]

As animal owners, one of our responsibilities is to keep our animals at home, not have them visit the neighbor's. Fencing, a secure run, and clipping those wing feathers, all good suggestions. We have lovely near neighbors, who absolutely do not want our chickens on their property. We've fixed the fence between ours and theirs, and have many better areas for our flock when they free range.
Mary

This People who keep animals should have fences to stop said animals from straying outside of the property. People who keep sheep have fences, people who keep horses have fences, pigs, goats, etc. - all have fences. Why should chickens be any different or more special? They aren't entitled to total unrestrained freedom any more than any other animal is. They are more inconvenient because they can jump higher than a sheep, but they are still our responsibility.

 

[Theorrin]

unfortunately the only way to keep them in or out of an area is a fence

 

[K0k0shka]

I have a fence and only about 6 get out everyday - I'm going find those holes in the fence and mix them! Also I'm going to try clipping Diego's wings and see if that helps!
Thanks for the help everyone!

Clip only one wing, to throw off his balance. If both are trimmed equally he may still manage to jump high.

 

[Krugerrand]

Deer netting isn't a great long-term solution as it tears apart easily and snow and ice will destroy it ... but it can be handy for a short term block that might help them change their roaming habits.

 

[sourland]

Any idea as to why he wants to cross the road? Especially good foraging there? The only thing that may stop him is a pen or fence.