What goes into raising a friendly roo?

[gimmie birdies]

I have not had problems with cuddling, if a roo was ever brave enough to get near me, I 'd pick him up and cuddle him. He would learn to not come near me, or would come for a cuddle. Cuddly ones can be spotted young...

This is Weebee, he was a single hatched egg a lady gave me, at day 4 I gave him to a mom, but he would always come see me for cuddles.

here he is waiting to be held.

 

[Alexandra33]

Oh, it's so good to know I'm not the only one who cuddles my baby boys!

Now I don't feel like such an oddball.

~Alex

 

[newhamplover]

For me personally I think you should always be aware of your own personal behavior when dealing with any animal. Whether you are aware of it or not, when you interact with anything, you are teaching & sending signals.... either positive or negative. So many people go around animals so unaware of the signals they are sending. We have a friend who had a rooster who turned out "bad" & like so many paid the price by being killed. But did he ever examine the why behind it. When the chickens were young he tossed the pullets back & forth over a fence, chased after them, creating havoc, the young roo saw this behavior as aggression to his flock. I knew how this would end up from the beginning. When the roo came into maturity he was aggressive. He was protecting his flock. He had been raised aggressively. He had seen aggression to his flock. I have always been more aware of how I interact with the hens than my roo. I am very calm & reassuring with all of them & that in turn has been the same behavior they give back to me. He is always watching, that is his job. He knows I pose no threat to his girls. I wash my girls rears when they need it & blow them dry....he watches, but he knows his girls are in no danger or threat so there has been no problem. He is a very good & protective roo & I respect his right to be who he is supposed to be.

 

[ChickenLover200]

People say you need to be dominate and knock your roosters off your hwns and not let him crow in front of you,no thats ridculou and not right and is not necassary in my opinion.

I have never done any of this and EVERY single one of roosters turned out excellent.Same for friends 10 or 12 roosters she had.

Just spend time holding him and his girls and hand feeding him and making sure he respects you.Its simple as that,just make you can have a pot ready.

I agree. No knocking a roosteroff the hen is necessary. Just ignore the "action" and no trouble will come of it.
My boy crows in front of me all the time. There's nothing wrong with this. A rooster is going to crow

 

[flyboy129]

Two of the friendliest roos I have had were both rescued. The first one I picked up at a former job. I worked a public works job and animal control had brought in a young roo (about 6-9 months old) that had been either hit by a car or dropped from a truck. Poor guy was found in the street. One guy wanted to make dumplings out of him, but the secretary would have nothing of it. I told her I would try to rehab him, but made no promises of any success. I took him home, divided the pen (only had two hens at the time and had to keep the girls away from him since they were very, ahem, excited of the prospect of a male. Both of his legs were broken. I splinted him up with gauze, popsicle sticks, and duct tape while he protested the whole time. I gave him food and water and let nature work. For the next two days, every time I took him food and water and reworked his bandages, I fully expected to walk into the pen and find him dead. He was that bad.

Well, he didn't die. He thrived. He got used to the routine of splints and duct tape and me handling him. His legs mended. Nowhere near perfectly, mind you. He always looked like he hobbled. I named him Hoppy. I released him to the girls and quickly discovered, despite his disability, he was quite honestly, the most procreating roo I had ever seen. He lived for about 5-6 years. Of that time, I don't think I could have had a more pleasant experience with a rooster. Friendly isn't descriptive enough. He would follow me around the garden for treats and call the ladies when he got one. he was perfectly fine with being held and petted and would soak up the attention like a sponge. Sadly, I think the leg injury was what shortened his life. About 3 months before he passed, he started having more difficulty walking, then standing. I carried him around the yard to his favorite spots, where he would still call the ladies over. He got a respiratory illness and succumbed 3 days later.

My current roo, Ducky, was a straggler who happened to walk thru the yard where I live now. I had married, moved ,and no longer had my typical flock of backyard birds. While outside I heard the familiar clucking and cooing of a roo investigating new things. I discovered the guy walking through the front yard and approached. He let me get close (5-6ft), but not too close, so I assumed he was accustomed to people and was simply an escapee from somewhere. I let him alone and went back to work. A couple hours later, I was outside again and heard the neighbors across the field (my grandparents in-law) yelling at their dog, a Siberian Huskey. I look up and discover that he had a feathered, red squeaky toy and was tossing it in the air. My heart dropped. I raced across the field and luckily for the roo, Skip (the dog) had his back turned and didn't see me coming. I tackled him, grabbed the scared roo, and immediately went into home vet mode. Thankfully, the worst damage was that he had been half plucked. He had a couple of bite marks under his wings, which I applied neosporin on. I had a makeshift pen I had made for the cat to go outside in since she was declawed. I put him in it with some corn, bread, and water. Nobody knew of any lost roos, so I decided to keep him. I brought in a hen from my parent's and haven't looked back. The wife has gotten used to the growing flock (up to 20 now). Ducky is thankfully as friendly as ever. I have had to treat him for bumblefoot and do some cutting on him to get it out. - He since has been a little more apprehensive as to me picking him up, but still follows me around the place for treats and a wattle and comb rub.

 

[slordaz]

Just my experience with my free ranged flock, I have a barred rock that is a terror for several days if something upset the hens, but he will protect them with his life, so he's watched as he knows towards humans isn't allowed, the other roo is a production Rhode Island red, we got rid of 2 of his brothers after they killed one of their siblings at about 7-8 weeks old and kept him as he's quite gentle with the girls and never human aggressive. The work well as a team protecting the flock the more aggressive one goes after something trying to get after the hens while the red brings them to safety and calms them . I think a lot has to do with how many hens you have too I've heard several different numbers per rooster and having more issues right now as we lost one hen to a predator one is just about done raising chicks and 3 are sitting on nests with several others acting like they want to but are waiting for the brooding box. We don't see much aggression as long as there's about 10 hens per rooster. They calmed down real quick when first hen beat everyone up for getting close to the babies then they got 3 screeching ones in the brooding boxes.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

I've been quite curious: what exactly is the reasoning behind avoiding "coddling" or "loving on" your young roo-in-training? I'll be honest, I've been quite guilty of hugging, kissing, petting, and hand feeding my 9 little boys, all of whom are from breeders and 6 of whom are bred to the Standard. Just wondering.

~Alex

Thays what people belive but I have done it nd saw too many roosters treated like baabiea to belive that.

 

[awarmrainyday]

I've sort of been wondering the same thing myself. I have a pet rooster in the house and when I found him he was very sick and very injured and acted like he had never been handled. He had to get over that quickly though because I was constantly handling him to give him meds or clean his wounded eye. Now he crows when he hears my voice and will not stop until I pick him up. But he is very very old and doesn't move very fast, so maybe he just likes being carried around so he can see what's going on without actually putting any effort into it.

I have 3- three month old red ranger roos now, two of them are friendly enough, they are reserved but will run over for treats and let me pet them. The third was the first who showed signs of being a roo and wanted to attack my hand and pinch hard. When he did that I just scooped him up and held him or pushed his head away depending on what I was doing. Now that he's outside free-ranging he comes running, flapping his wings when he sees me and wants me to crouch so he can hop up on my knee. Then he proceeds to take a nap. He doesn't like to be picked up or held, but if I don't crouch for him when he's following me around he will peck at my pants. I don't know if his personality will change much or not, I hope not but who knows. If he decides to become standoffish that's okay too, as long as he takes care of his girls.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Sometime a cat will love bite you. We do have to understand sometimes animals want to get your attention.

I had a chicken who was very agressive and would attack my leg every time I saw it. I thought this is a mean boy I should just put him down, then he layed an egg. After He started to lay eggs, I figured, okay it is a girl chicken who wants attention some how, so I gave her lots of love and she never attacked me again just came by for cuddles later she even hatched and raised baby ducks.

 

[Searsmom]

I have a week old Orpington Roo ( at least thats what I ordered) and I was wondering the same thing. At what age do hormones usually begin to kick in? 

I ordered 3 Buff Orpington roos with my first group of 7 BO hens. I hand raised them all inside as we had no brooder. Once hormones kicked in, about 6-7 months, I watched their behavior toward me, my 4-yr old, and the hens. My goal was to pick the nicest roo for all of us. I had a friend, who would teach us how to butcher. Two I could pick up with no problems, the other would run away. Of the two remaining, one did more dancing for the females, so he was the keeper. One or two things I was (and am) very careful to do - always move slowly and deliberately around all the chickens; make sure the 4-yr old knew not to chase them; offer the first "tidbit" to the roo, who would take it out of my hand and call his hens over. Still, in the spring there was a time or two when I was walking away and would feel a thump on the back of my boot but no dangerous aggression, and this was only during spring. I would pick him up and cuddle him in front of his hens and it would stop for a week or so. He never offered any aggression aside from that. He was also the first to run away at any sign of danger, lol.
I lost him when I had friends feed my flock while we were on vacation. He had 3 good years with us and I've not had that good a roo since. I understand my experience was unusual, but the BO is probably the best choice to start with as far as temperament, even then you get individuals. There are often charts in books on chickens, Storey has one, which charts docility vs. flightyness (read aggression), the more docile the breed, the better the chance for a calm roo.