2 yr old rooster has gone psycho

[Rune]

I read everyones post with a sinking feeling. I have a year old bantam millefluer who is the meanest cuss u could meet. I raised him from a day old chick. The change was rapid, I had always held him, got along fine, then he went for me. Vicious attack and I had to use a stick to get him off and into the house and yes the scars are terrible. He is beautiful , really the nicest show quality . I keep him in a large house with pen now and have to use a stick to put feed and change water. The words of wisdom i found on the thread were: The trait is possibly genetic , so unfortunately he will be going home too. I loved him to pieces , and we wont make it to see how he is at 2 years, he is very dangerous now. My bantam cochin roo is as sweet as can be, I raised them together . I am very attached to my peeps and realize temperment is to b considered seriously in breeding them.

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

I had a roo...whose name was 'the nasty rooster' who took to attacking me usually when my back was turned. So I tied him up. I put a zip tie on his ankle loose enough to not hurt his leg, but tight enough it would not slip over his foot and used a thin plastic coated fifteen foot cable with two hooks on the ends. It was a dog tie out I got at the Dollar Store for little or nothing.

I'd put one hook through the zip tie (which I cut all the tail off of it so it could not be accidentaly tightened and cut off his blood circulation) and I'd clip the other end to something else. Catching him to put the zip tie on and hook the tie out was the hard part. I waited till he went to roost to do it as there was going to be no catching him during the day.

He just hated that thing. When I'd go into the pen I'd pick up the cable and when he came at me, I'd jerk that one leg out from under him. If he was already airborne jerking that cable would cause him to fall from the air. He was never 'tamed' but he did learn to avoid being anywhere near me. Later I rehomed him to a free ranging flock that was not confined. He never did make the connection that it was the cable that was his problem in planning attacks...he acted like it was me personally that caused his issues trying to come at me.

 

[pigeon258]

My roosters get especially feisty this time of year. All the hens start getting broody and the roosters get more aggressive when they days get long. Still, if I have a large aggressive rooster, I get rid of him. In my area, there is a thriving ethnic market for poultry and for many of these poultry enthusiasts, a rooster that is mildly aggressive is highly desirable so I often sell aggressive birds to an experienced poultryman. (Added note: I used to think they were used for fighting but after years of selling birds, I've learned that this is not the case and that some cultures just like feisty roosters. And if the rooster is too aggressive, they eat it.) Incidentally, I've found that the best way to prevent aggressive behavior is to NOT handle my rooster chicks excessively, tame them, and make them into pets if I plan on using them for breeding. I want my roosters to associate me with food and protection but be slightly wary of me and stay back when I'm around.

 

[willygog]

Yup,

Been there done that,, had a barred rock rooster, went that way after i started taking eggs one day.. I tried returning violence for violence, what didnt kill it just made it stronger, it would attack anyone, flying into there face with spurs a swingin,, my sister in laws mother ended up with a bad arm, after a spur entered the elbow area and tore ligaments.. (not my bird) but it shows the damage a PO defensive cock bird can do... I think your on borrowed time till that bird hurts you,, and never turn your back on it...

Me i got so tired of that behaviour that i finally had that bird for dinner.. You aren't going to make it your sweet baby no more, (you are the enemy! )

Oh ya them roosters are stewin birds.. not real tender..

 

[jajeanpierre]

Wow, great post, chooks4life!

I have a rooster who is dinner waiting to happen. He is my only adult rooster and is a superb flock rooster--watchful for predators, able to teach ditzy Polish to move to a fence line when there is an alarm, and polite to the hens. I've kept him solely to protect my free range flock. He would be perfect if he wasn't aggressive to people.

He's an Ameraucana from a top breeder. Last year, I raised about five cockerels from that breeder: a blue, a splash, two wheatens and a blue wheaten. The wheatens breeding lines would have been completely separate lines from the blue and splash birds.

The blue and splash cockerels are/were quite people aggressive. The splash ended up in the freezer at about 9 months. The blue is a gorgeous specimen and I needed a rooster to guard the hens, so he is still alive. The blue wheaten was rehomed to my neighbor who since got rid of him because of "too many hormones" in the yard, as she put it. The two wheatens were culled at 9 months without showing any people aggression. They were the very bottom of the cockerel pecking order.

I have this one rooster with my free range flock who is only alive until the 7 four-month old cockerels from the same breeder are grown up enough to take over the role of flock protectors. I intend to grow out a few of these cockerels to use for breeding and showing. I've just recently integrated the juvenile Ameraucanas into free range flock (7 cockerels, 5 pullets). They are still off on their own and haven't yet been incorporated into the rooster's very small flock although he does watch them. I believe if something attacked them, he would come running.

I'm starting to worry about getting attacked in the face. I hate that I am basically abusing this animal because if he attacks, I will kick him, hit him with something or grab him and stuff his face into the ground like a rooster would do. Bottom line, this is animal abuse in my mind. I hate being afraid to walk around my property. He HAS to go, but I don't want to leave my 12 ditzy 4-month old Ameraucanas, two Polish (that the rooster trained to be a lot more watchful than they were when I put first them out with him), and a bantam without a rooster to watch over them.

However, he is getting really dangerous. I can see him killing one of my mini Dachshunds, although a few floggings from him have been a very good lesson for them to learn.

When do young cockerels start being protective?

I really think I need to cull him even though I won't have a proper guarding rooster.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Bugsydoodle1]

Three years ago I got six pullets of different varieties. I ended up with five rooster, and one by one, they became very nasty. We live live in the woods, so my solution was to carry e offender quite a ways up into the woods and leave him for the predators. Every time I took one up, another of them would get very aggressive. Til I ended up with one hen left. Now I have a wonderful roo, gotten from a friend. Have even had him into the house in winter so a little girl could see him...he just sat there accepting the petting she gave him.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Three years ago I got six pullets of different varieties. I ended up with five rooster, and one by one, they became very nasty. We live live in the woods, so my solution was to carry e offender quite a ways up into the woods and leave him for the predators. Every time I took one up, another of them would get very aggressive. Til I ended up with one hen left. Now I have a wonderful roo, gotten from a friend. Have even had him into the house in winter so a little girl could see him...he just sat there accepting the petting she gave him.

Now, I'm all for culling a bird but I can't agree with just releasing them to a cruel death by predation. If you are going to cull the bird, do it kindly and do it quickly. Death by predator can be a very long, slow, terrifying and painful death.

Why would you want to give away that perfectly good meal?

Think about what you are doing--you are teaching predators that chickens are food. Predators learn what animals to take--why teach/encourage them to take chickens? Any successful kill of a chicken only encourages that predator to take more chickens.

 

[virgil]

Best bet is to add him to dressing and dumplings. Cranberries on the side.

 

[ChickenvilleUSA]

It's time for him to go to the stew pot. Once they go bad there is NO going back and can be dangerous especially to small children as they can spur their eyes.

 

[kubotafoot]

He needs to go and go now! He has shown signs of aggression before and it has escalated to this. In my experience he will not "come around" like from a bad day at work. There are so many wonderful roosters out there.......Don't keep him out of guilt or pity and fear. Some things are better in death than life. Fricassee in a crock pot comes to mind here.
Good luck.