Argh. I had hopes for this roo and I still do, but not as much now... Mixed young flock, Welsumer roo, all about 5 months old, first pullets started laying.
Now my roo ( I have two, actually, the other was supposed to be a pullet and behaves like one except for some crowing in the morning) who has been all roo since he was tiny, crowing at 6 weeks, has started to eye me suspiciously whenever I show up and puts himself in front of his hens (and one roo) showing me his side. When I have something in my hands he doesn't like, he jumps at it. First, he knocked the grit/oystershell feeder out of my hands as I picked it up to refill. Few days later he jumped at a bag. Then gave ground predator alarm. Last time he jumped at me as I put the clean up bucket on the roost, after scraping off the poop boards. I had the egg basket (luckily still empty) in my other hand and knocked him back with that and yelled at him, which made him stop and assume his sideways pose again, eying me. I just stood until he finally lowered his head to peck at something, then I left the coop. Argh. He is making me really nervous now, when I have to reach in the coop for anything (the coop is on stilts, so the chickens are closer to my face) or bend down to look in the nest boxes...
My hunch is, he is just nervous for some reason and I try to give him space while at the same time moving assuredly through the run, and make him get out of my way when he "blocks" my path. When he positions himself sideways I usually aim for his tail as I walk towards him and he will move for me... I started shutting them all out of the coop now when I do morning chores in there, to avoid rooster freak outs...
The other thing that confuses me is that when I let the chickens out into their run in the morning ((i usually prepare a fresh weed "buffet" for them firat and they all race out to get to it), he will discipline any hen he can get close enough to, at least that's what it looks like. Everybody gets a good jab. I have only ever seen him do it in this situation and I wonder what is going on. Is he trying to get them to stay behind till he gives the ok? Is he trying to impress me? I have no clue.
I sure hope he'll settle down again!
Now my roo ( I have two, actually, the other was supposed to be a pullet and behaves like one except for some crowing in the morning) who has been all roo since he was tiny, crowing at 6 weeks, has started to eye me suspiciously whenever I show up and puts himself in front of his hens (and one roo) showing me his side. When I have something in my hands he doesn't like, he jumps at it. First, he knocked the grit/oystershell feeder out of my hands as I picked it up to refill. Few days later he jumped at a bag. Then gave ground predator alarm. Last time he jumped at me as I put the clean up bucket on the roost, after scraping off the poop boards. I had the egg basket (luckily still empty) in my other hand and knocked him back with that and yelled at him, which made him stop and assume his sideways pose again, eying me. I just stood until he finally lowered his head to peck at something, then I left the coop. Argh. He is making me really nervous now, when I have to reach in the coop for anything (the coop is on stilts, so the chickens are closer to my face) or bend down to look in the nest boxes...
My hunch is, he is just nervous for some reason and I try to give him space while at the same time moving assuredly through the run, and make him get out of my way when he "blocks" my path. When he positions himself sideways I usually aim for his tail as I walk towards him and he will move for me... I started shutting them all out of the coop now when I do morning chores in there, to avoid rooster freak outs...
The other thing that confuses me is that when I let the chickens out into their run in the morning ((i usually prepare a fresh weed "buffet" for them firat and they all race out to get to it), he will discipline any hen he can get close enough to, at least that's what it looks like. Everybody gets a good jab. I have only ever seen him do it in this situation and I wonder what is going on. Is he trying to get them to stay behind till he gives the ok? Is he trying to impress me? I have no clue.
I sure hope he'll settle down again!
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