7 month old rooster behavior- please help

[3qkate]

Hello!

We raised our chickens from chicks and have kept one rooster who is now 7 months old. He is a Millie Fleur D'uccle. We have a younger batch of heavily handled chicks also that are 3 months now, and there is one cockerel in that bunch that we need to rehome. We have 12 total, all living together. This rooster has always been the favorite and also sweetest of the batch. Even sweeter than the hens. My daughter loved him so much we let her keep him but said we would need to rehome if he ever became aggressive. He just in the last week did the circling dance and pecked my daughter's leg quite hard. She is 8, and we have a 5 year old boy. Just this morning he tried it with me also, but I was able to stop him. He is held often and is always sweet as pie, and usually sticks around long enough to fall asleep in our arms. Is there any hope that we can stop this behavior? I can't keep a rooster I can't trust with my kids, and my daughter likes to do the runs to the chicken coop. I appreciate any advice you can offer! Would it help to rehome the other cockerel now? We were keeping him only for body heat in the coop, and going to rehome him when the weather turned nicer.

 

[nuthatched]

Welcome to hormones.
The thing is, since he was handled so much as a young one, the favorite as you say, he's thinking " I can do whatever I want want not get punished, I'm in charge!"
It's always the favorite rooster that turns into a spoiled brat.
He's probably been doing things that weren't conductive to respecting you but without the fire of hormones, you didn't notice to correct or just though he was being friendly.
When he gets ornery, pick him up and carry him or hold him down for a few minutes.
Don't back away or run, he pecks you, you Peck him with 2 fingers and a thumb, hard and fast. You're the boss. don't let your kids around him until you've got him to be respectful to you and then only with your supervison.

 

[3qkate]

This is super helpful! I feel comfortable doing these things and I'll start right away. I know it's impossible to say for certain, but do you think he will always need supervision? I'm not sure that would be feasible and my kids have to come first. This is really hard to even think about!

It does seem that his hormones are changing though. He seems extra protective of his favorite hen.

 

[nuthatched]

This is super helpful! I feel comfortable doing these things and I'll start right away. I know it's impossible to say for certain, but do you think he will always need supervision? I'm not sure that would be feasible and my kids have to come first. This is really hard to even think about!

It does seem that his hormones are changing though. He seems extra protective of his favorite hen.

It depends on him, but I'd say that if you start training him to be respectful of people, after a few weeks of him being respectful of you, you can start bringing your kids with you to see if he ignores them. if he tries anything with them, hold him down or carry him under your arm with his wings pinned, he needs to figure out thst the kids are your flock and you won't put up with mistreatment. Kids are easy targets since they're small, fast and make noise. He might see them as peers.
if he doesn't seem to notice, that's good. He should be paying more attention to his ladies than to you. eventually his hormones will calm down a bit and he'll be less likely to try anything.
Its hard to say how animals will take any training but maybe you'll not have to worry about him with your kids with training.

 

[3qkate]

Thank you again! We really love having our chickens (and roo) as pets so I want to do right by him if possible. This seems like a good plan.

 

[nuthatched]

You're welcome, I hope you're able to keep him. Having a rooster in the flock is a different dynamic than having a hen only flock.
Also, give him his treats first, so he can divy them out to his girls and he doesn't think you're trying to steal his hens, which could lead to more aggression.

 

[mowin]

Roosters are funny. My nephews rooster won't bother him or his kids, but his wife is fair game.
If me or my brother are over there, he comes for us immediately, and will not back down until we really give him a taste of boot leather.

 

[Mya05]

Hello!

We raised our chickens from chicks and have kept one rooster who is now 7 months old. He is a Millie Fleur D'uccle. We have a younger batch of heavily handled chicks also that are 3 months now, and there is one cockerel in that bunch that we need to rehome. We have 12 total, all living together. This rooster has always been the favorite and also sweetest of the batch. Even sweeter than the hens. My daughter loved him so much we let her keep him but said we would need to rehome if he ever became aggressive. He just in the last week did the circling dance and pecked my daughter's leg quite hard. She is 8, and we have a 5 year old boy. Just this morning he tried it with me also, but I was able to stop him. He is held often and is always sweet as pie, and usually sticks around long enough to fall asleep in our arms. Is there any hope that we can stop this behavior? I can't keep a rooster I can't trust with my kids, and my daughter likes to do the runs to the chicken coop. I appreciate any advice you can offer! Would it help to rehome the other cockerel now? We were keeping him only for body heat in the coop, and going to rehome him when the weather turned nicer.

View attachment 2511539

Wmother.W

Hello!

We raised our chickens from chicks and have kept one rooster who is now 7 months old. He is a Millie Fleur D'uccle. We have a younger batch of heavily handled chicks also that are 3 months now, and there is one cockerel in that bunch that we need to rehome. We have 12 total, all living together. This rooster has always been the favorite and also sweetest of the batch. Even sweeter than the hens. My daughter loved him so much we let her keep him but said we would need to rehome if he ever became aggressive. He just in the last week did the circling dance and pecked my daughter's leg quite hard. She is 8, and we have a 5 year old boy. Just this morning he tried it with me also, but I was able to stop him. He is held often and is always sweet as pie, and usually sticks around long enough to fall asleep in our arms. Is there any hope that we can stop this behavior? I can't keep a rooster I can't trust with my kids, and my daughter likes to do the runs to the chicken coop. I appreciate any advice you can offer! Would it help to rehome the other cockerel now? We were keeping him only for body heat in the coop, and going to rehome him when the weather turned nicer.

View attachment 2511539

With our cockerels, I also had my kids carry them around, make them submit, and 'peck' them using their fingers. My children are 10 and 6 years old and we have one 10 month old cockerel, and another cockerel that I assume is around the same age. I felt it was important for them to personally show the cockerels that they were in charge, not just me. I supervised throughout this training process, and we haven't had any issues since. My daughter, 10 years, routinely cares for, and interacts with our flock by herself. My son, 6 years, doesn't interact with them without my supervision. I simply refuse to take a chance with him, because of his age, and he is more likely to run away if attacked or scared. This would only entice the cockerels to keep attacking.

 

[wf1992]

Roosters are funny. My nephews rooster won't bother him or his kids, but his wife is fair game.
If me or my brother are over there, he comes for us immediately, and will not back down until we really give him a taste of boot leather.

I absolutely believe roosters can be selective like that! My daughter used to spend more time than anyone lovin' on the chickens, to the point where the rooster started to take offense. He'd puff up and keep between her and the hens. Couldn't really fault him for defending his girls.

 

[Folly's place]

There are some good articles about managing roosters here; look up @Beekissed , @BantyChooks , and for another view, @Shadrach . All are helpful, and might make a difference for you.
Small children and cockerels aren't a good mix, very often, and because you are all new to chickens, it's likely that you haven't noticed questionable behaviors until now.
Especially short people can loose eyeballs over this, so be careful, and have a Plan B if things don't improve.
Here we don't try to make 'pets' of our cockerels, we expect them to respect our space and move out of our way. Roosters have a job, and it's taking care of their flockmates, and looking out for danger, which shouldn't include the humans who bring food every day!
It's cute when the little cockerels come over and act friendly, but they may just be sizing you up, have no respect, and decide to get you away from their flock. Not good, with children, small properties, and especially visiting humans.
Cockerels raise with agemates only, with no adult hens and roosters to encourage politeness and humility, can be harder to manage. They become unruly adolescents, never a good stage, and it's not possible to promise that better behavior will occur later. Often not.
I hope you can work through this with your cockerels, but if not, don't wait for real injuries to occur before sending them off, with full disclosure.
Mary