Well, he's toast now

[Lumley Farm]

Yep, no rooster here, Fajitas seem to be the thing to do !!!!

 

[KCChickenMomma]

The problem with this hypothesis is that he was so belligerent that even when I was nowhere near him or the hens he would abandon the flock and run from one corner of the yard to the other (a distance of over 100 ft) to pick a fight with me. He would even charge the fence that separates the back yard from the pasture when he saw me in the pasture. This had nothing to do with me or anyone else "coveting" his girls.

I apologize, I wasn't referring to your situation. It sounds like your roo, to me anyway, was an a$$hole with no respect and there wasn't anything you could do to change that.

 

[Cathy Roberts]

I'm so sorry you got hurt!

 

[DParker75089]

Glad you're better and the culprit is no more.
Will you eat him?

If you really want to "bring this(thread) to a close",
you can click the report button and ask that it be closed to further comments.

Thanks. Yes, he'll be on the menu, probably next weekend. And I guess I should have used a different phrasing. I was referring to bringing the saga to a close, not the thread. I encourage discussion to continue if people can benefit from it.

 

[krimsonkitty]

My stupid WL rooster finally bought himself a one-way ticket to freezer camp. I was sitting on the edge of the back porch yesterday afternoon having a little quiet time hand-feeding the chickens some BSFL (their favorite treat). Todd (my rooster) wasn't a problem at all when we first got him about 9 months ago, but he's been getting increasingly combative with me for some time now, for reason(s) unbeknownst to me. He's normally pretty sedate at treat time though, even participating with no aggressive behavior at all, and this time appeared to be no different...until I turned my head for a second to give some larvae to one of the hens who was standing just behind my left shoulder. Apparently he thought that was a great opportunity to launch a sneak attack and he hit my right arm like a ton of bricks, sinking one spur into my forearm and the other directly into my wrist. Were I not bleeding like a stuck pig and my wrist in severe pain I would have killed him on the spot...but I was and it was, so that bought him a little time. I let both punctures bleed for just a little bit to help flush them out, then cleaned them up with peroxide and stopped the bleeding. Then I thought it a good idea to hit a local 24/7 urgent care joint to get a tetanus shot and a scrip for some antibiotics, which I did. As the night wore on my wrist and hand swelled a bit (which the doctor said would likely happen) and the pain became quite intense, making me think that I might have a hairline fracture in one or more of the little bones in/near the wrist. But this morning that pain had largely subsided (though it still aches pretty bad if I put any pressure on my wrist), which I wouldn't expect if anything were actually broken.

Given that I'm right-handed he has a few more days to strut around and crow until my hand and wrist feel good enough to grab his feathered ass and take him out of the gene pool. My fault for putting it off this long hoping he'd eventually learn better.

Freezer camp!!!!!
I’ve had several Roos that I’ve “set free” to try their luck in the wild. My friend had one that jumped her and her granddaughter so her husband used him for cross bow practice and made rooster “shisk kabob”

 

[CannedMonster]

Good luck with your healing, so glad he didn't chip a bone. In March I bought 7 barred rock 3 day old pullets. Two of them turned out to be roosters. I can not let my flock free range so I don't want roosters( but I do enjoy their crowing). I have tried to keep roosters in the past but at about a year old they get very protective of their hens. Last year I was spurred on the leg from behind. He was soup! This year I have decided not to let them get old. I am 77 years old and don't need injuries' from a roost if it can be prevented. Any day now they will go to freezer camp!

If you enjoy the crowing perhaps you would consider a very small rooster like an OEGB? They are typically very good with humans and hens.

 

[krimsonkitty]

If you enjoy the crowing perhaps you would consider a very small rooster like an OEGB? They are typically very good with humans and hens.

I have a little bantam roo - (he was supposed to be a hen when acquired but I’m awful at “chicken roulette”)
He’s a doll - he will let kids pick him up and sooooo far hasn’t shown any aggression to people. Plus he has the cutest little crow

 

[Folly's place]

Our Belgian d'Uccles have been good (except for our first, a total monster) and all but one of our bantam EEs from cackle have been good too.
Cockerels are individuals, so there's no 'sure thing'!

And years ago we had two adorable bantam Cochin cockerels, who were very human friendly but wanted to kill each other! It was funny, really, but they both found separate homes elsewhere.
Mary

 

[Poodlemum]

Nasty roosters usually start going after one person at a time, often the shortest individual, and then broaden their scope and attacks.

This is good to know! Our two main cockerels are awful around the kids and occasionally me, but the old roo that adopted us has never even looked sideways at us. I’ve been debating penning the two for a few months to mellow out, but I don’t want to pass on bad genes. There’s more than enough roos to go around and I can replace pretty egg genes easily

 

[SourRoses]

I forget who it was on here who gave some great advice:
If a rooster challenges you, don't just face off with him (which lets him think he's holding his own), instead you have to get him on the run. Truly running away from you. The same way they act when they've lost to another rooster.
We tried that with a roo who scratched my mom, and it worked! He became very respectful. But his fate was sealed the moment he hurt her, we were just waiting for a convenient time to give him to a local for processing and we wanted to be safe until then.

Reading the body language of animals takes a lot of time with that sort of animal.
Decent horse people know what the horse is indicating before the bad things happen.
We're highly motivated when the animal weighs a thousand pounds.
But with the little ones we just don't think about it till we learn the hard way. Just like people with toy dogs who become terrors because their signs of aggression are overlooked.
Since we have the brains, humans must learn to speak the animals (body) language and social mores. And that is not to submit to his preferences (LMAO), it's to respond in a way they will understand.

I was a little shocked some people in this thread seemed to be saying the hens belong to the rooster. Hens are the reason most people have chickens in the first place, and the roosters are on highly conditional probation. Due to either mercy or for breeding.
Half of all chickens are male so the selection pressure is naturally intense, now it must be focused on compatibility with people. A rooster has no rights, only privileges gifted to him by a benevolent human who keeps him from starvation, predation, and even the weather. It's not only aggression we are talking about here, but basic intelligence. Why perpetuate genetics that have shown them TSTL (too stupid to live).