A Management Challenge to Reduce Rooster Aggression Directed at Keeper

centrarchid

Crossing the Road
14 Years
Sep 19, 2009
27,548
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Holts Summit, Missouri
At work we have small demonstration flock consisting five dual purpose laying pullets coming into lay and a Barred Plymouth Rock cockerel in addition to a pair of American Games I provided. All are about 5 months old. Barred Plymouth Rock cockerel has taken to attacking one of his keepers but ignores everyone else. For last two days he has flogged and chased her. Tomorrow I will try to film the debacle and try to get those parties to break cockerel of attacking without employing violence or restraint against him. I will also be chewing some butt when comes to how birds have been interacted with. Kids have been instructed to chase birds and keeper being attacked has alternated between kicking cockerel and running from him. Another party has been directing the kicking at the bird which works for him because he is also confident in his mannerism while doing so. I also intend for them to re-tame birds I provided as they now avoid human interaction which decidedly different from all of my birds kept back. This is all a husbandry / management problem.
 
My God. There is no end to the list of idiots. Centrarchid have you run across the method that I've used. Tucking them under the arm at the hip and holding the head gently down and then letting it go and repeating it until they no longer pick it up. At that point you can let the rooster back down. I had a horrid rooster experience and was determined to not have that happen with any more and I found this method. I have only had to repeat it twice with one rooster. The rest it only took once.

ETA: Oh, you grab them immediately upon aggressive approach.
 
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There will be no grabbing if my approach followed although if grabbing done properly I see how it can work. Emphasis here will be on changing students behavior in not responding to aggression and wearing bird out. She will get flogged more in the process but she will also gain confidence and not have such relationships go bad in the future. The chasing bit is going to be a bigger problem with kids. Heat and psychological stress alone should have been enough reason not to do such.
 
These guys can do it. They simply lack prior experience. They did see how easy mine are to work with but did not see details in how it is realized. The being scared of birds part was not something I expected but will be dealt with. Discovered similar problem and likely similar mentality when it comes to fear of bees. That manifested other day when teaching student how to evaluate re-queening process. Same student had identical approach to aggressive birds. Counter behavior made situation worse, even for me.
 
I'll be interested to follow this thread. My rooster and I had settled into a great relationship before he was taken by a predator in late May. In my flock of 7 chicks, I believe one of my Brahmas is a rooster - the other that was taken was an Ameraucana. The difference in the two breeds will be interesting to observe, but I'd like a good working relationship with this rooster if I choose to keep him. I'll be following along!
 
I could never figure out what happened to my rooster. He was very tame and as he matured simply turned one day and attacked. My instincts were to kick him across the yard and he came back at me. I reacted (over-reacted?) and grabbed him by the neck. It was downhill from there. I have never been afraid of chickens...still am not. So the problem was in my initial reaction? I think it was as now I know to swoop them up and tuck their head down.
 

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