- Thread starter
- #11
gypsylady32
Songster
Thanks for all the advice! I have a "play pen" sort of chicken run coming from amazon tomorrow. I will be letting the chicks out of the coop and giving them more space to just be chickens. My plan is to sit with them and let them get more used to me being around. If the skittish one stays that way, it's ok. We all have quirks. LOL I'll keep working on it and see how it goes. Not ready to give up just yet.I've heard so much conflicting advice on how to handle aggression. Some people say to be mean to them back like a another rooster would and "show them you're the boss." Others say to simply pick them up to act entirely different than another rooster to show that you're not a threat like carrying the rooster around when he's naughty.
In my experience, these nippy chicks aren't necessarily dominant, rather fearful. They remind me of a dog fear biting. These aren't the chicks that became aggressive in my experience. I would simply pick them up or maybe kind of force them down when they would do that and they'd usually stop and never grew up to be aggressive. The super friendly chicks are the ones that have turned bad for me. I would just stay hopeful that it's just the case of a nippy chick and just give gentle correction and teach him to trust.
Right now I'm dealing with a mildy aggressive rooster. Picking him up or making him submit did not work. It seems to make him more aggressive. Lately I have been just walking around with confidence and talking gently towards him and he has been great. If he gets too close I talk to him a bit and pet his back and he just walks away. I think the different approaches may work for certain roosters and not for others. I would just try to see if socialization will help!
Say it isn't so!!! I'll take some more pics to post. I was told they hatched on March 19th. That would make them 8 wks old on Friday. The other two are dark and have dark markings on their legs. I was told all three were pullets, but I"m super new at this.
