6 month old rooster- new raging hormones or true signs of an aggressive bird...

[lazy gardener]

Moe, I can guarantee that it will work. If it doesn't you can plan on plugging in your crock pot.

 

[MoeBug]

Beekist has great advice for improving your cockerel's attitude towards you, which is good. It won't translate into good behavior with your child, though. Can everyone in your family work with this cockerel, and will he improve enough?
I think you should invite him to dinner (or to someone's dinner) and see how your other cockerel behaves. Maybe he's a winner!
Mary

I did think about that this morning. My other rooster, Runt, is sweet but, since he is at the bottom of the pecking order, very skiddish. If Beekist's amazing advice doesn't work on Winston then I will give the DH the task of dealing with him and impart the training on Runt.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Moe, I can guarantee that it will work. If it doesn't you can plan on plugging in your crock pot.

At least plan B is yummy

 

[MoeBug]

Moe, I can guarantee that it will work. If it doesn't you can plan on plugging in your crock pot.

Sending one of the kiddos out to find a switch now! I think that is hysterical in and of itself! It is time for Winston and I to tango....

 

[Folly's place]

We all will want to see updates!
Mary

 

[MoeBug]

That is more cruel than taking a hatchet and stump and chopping his head off. When we choose to raise animals, we also need to accept the responsibility to provide them as humane and painless a death as possible.

That being said, please take Folly's advice and find the article by Beekissed on "Roosterspeak" (If you can't please let us know - someone will find it for you)


Not a fail at all. But you need to think this through. If you hatch and raise more chickens, there will be more cockerels to figure out what to do with. Sure, you can give them away. Or, you can decide that you are capable of making a meal of them. I was raised a city girl, too. Married my farmer and we started raising meat birds (the ugly white Cornish cross that would die at the drop of a hat and had so many health problems, and never moved from the feeder). I also had laying hens, and some roosters from time to time. But I'd never let DH butcher the "pretty ones". Then, finally, I realized that if I wanted to be a responsible chicken keeper, I needed to manage my flock more responsibly, and that meant processing the extra cockerels if I was going to hatch chicks.


Sorry - this is really a sore spot for me. He'd rather have Winston die a terrifying death, probably not instantly, but being tortured by a predator, than giving him a good life and one bad moment?

If you have room in your run, lean some pallets or plywood or something up against the wall or fence of the run. Make sure it's open on both ends so they don't get cornered. A pallet on cement blocks that the smaller chickens can get under, but is harder for the bigger ones to follow them. I would suggest reading Aart's article on integration. Make sure you have plenty of room. It does take a lot of space so the younger ones can get out of the older ones' area if needed. Integrating can be tricky.

Personally, if this were my cockerel, I don't think I'd keep him. I would eat him. If you really want to try to train him, I would give him maybe a few weeks. If he doesn't attempt to come around by then, I would say he's probably not going to.

Thank you so much, bobbi-j, for all of your wonderful information! Being new to chickens certainly does have a learning curve and I am learning so much from everyone here. I know that I need to be better about farm life and I am trying. Lazy gardener provided me with Beekist's article and, after Winston and I do the switch tango, I will look up Aart's article on integration.

 

[MoeBug]

We all will want to see updates!
Mary

I will give a status report by the end of the day.

 

[bobbi-j]

Thank you so much, bobbi-j, for all of your wonderful information! Being new to chickens certainly does have a learning curve and I am learning so much from everyone here. I know that I need to be better about farm life and I am trying. Lazy gardener provided me with Beekist's article and, after Winston and I do the switch tango, I will look up Aart's article on integration.

Having chickens is a huge learning curve. It took me a long time to realize that it's OK to butcher the "pretty ones". It helped to remember that there will be more next year to look at. (Ideally, anyway... given everything goes as planned.)

 

[Folly's place]

My first rooster, a cute Belgian d'Uccle bantam, wanted to kill us all! I learned, and never again.
Mary

 

[igorsMistress]

Hot damn! Thank you so much! I am starting that routine TODAY!

I followed beekissed's advice with my first roo, he was supposed to be a girl. He's in my freezer waiting to be made into soup.
This time around I had 2 boys out of 4 chicks. I kept the one who was calm, quiet and not particularly interested in the girls yet, but it was obvious the day he came home that he was roo and that certainly helped. He wasn't handled a lot as a chick, and I'm following the same advice this time...no stick though. I'll chase him off the food if he's too greedy and chases the littles off too much. Otherwise, I spend as much time out there as I can and he pretty much keeps his distance. So far, so good. I didn't chase him off the hen he managed to mount. He's doing his job.
I agree with the poster who said not to treat roos as pets. I don't agree with carrying a switch to chase a roo per beekissed. They think you're vulnerable without it. Didn't work out well for the boy in the freezer, but I learned a valuable lesson.
Good luck, I hope things work out well.