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.
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.