??about slightly aggressive roo

[yomama]

I have a 14 1/2 week old Blue Andalusian roo "Spunky" ( supposed to be pullet) that I ordered from MPC as a baby. He is definately coming into his "manhood", even has begun mating with some of the other pullets. My problem is, lately, he has began challenging me and my family. At first it was just my daughters, 7 and 10. He never actually charged them, but I could tell he was going to. I thought maybe it was because he has the hormones going, and feels no fear from them, since they don't deal with him that much. However, just yesterday, he charged me twice! It's always when I have my back turned, but keeping and eye on him. The first time, I kicked him square in the chest, then chased him a little. He never made contact with me, since I knew he was coming.That made him back off, and he left me alone for awhile. Then later that day, he did it again. This time I caught him before he got too close. I swung my foot at him, and grabbed a hunk of dirt, and threw it at him- while yelling of course. That made him back off again, but I can see he is considering coming after me, even when he backs off. I can walk around the yard with him in it, and it's not like he immediately goes after me. Sometimes he doesn't even bother me at all. It is usually when I am in there for awhile doing something. Is this something he may grow out of, kind of like testing the waters with the humans, or is he most likely going to get worse?

**For reference, I also have 4 other pullets, and one female Pekin duck all 14 1/2 weeks old, that he was raised with, 3 hens 2 years old, and 1 roo 1 1/2 year old. He does not fight with any of the other hens or even the roo. The other roo is actually the peace keeper, and Spunky seems to respects and listens to him, as of now. They all free range together.

 

[ChooksChick]

If this was me and a roo I loved, I would carry him around and sit with him and spend LOTS of time with him. I have roos I can carry around like a baby alllll day long. I feel that if they know and trust you on a very close level, they can be less aggressive.

That being said I will not deny that there are some birds that will not be tamed, who will turn on you and never go back. I notice this most often with Mediterranean breeds. Work with him and try to earn his trust and make him comfortable with you.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you do not want your girls attacked, get rid of him! They are not that big, and he is getting way too brave, and he could attack them badly. No rooster is more important than their faces or eyes.

imho roosters are for household without children. They are a male animal, and many male animals can get very aggressive, quickly. Children are small, and more at eye level or nearly eye level with a flying bird.

You really have been given a warning, when he attacked you. His attacks will get bolder and bolder, and he will have considerable less respect for your girls, as they are not as big as you. You are risking too much.

Perhaps one can train a rooster, and you be the top rooster, but a child will not.

Mrs.K

 

[joebryant]

Mrs. K :

If you do not want your girls attacked, get rid of him! They are not that big, and he is getting way too brave, and he could attack them badly. No rooster is more important than their faces or eyes.

imho roosters are for household without children. They are a male animal, and many male animals can get very aggressive, quickly. Children are small, and more at eye level or nearly eye level with a flying bird.

You really have been given a warning, when he attacked you. His attacks will get bolder and bolder, and he will have considerable less respect for your girls, as they are not as big as you. You are risking too much.

Perhaps one can train a rooster, and you be the top rooster, but a child will not.

Mrs.K

RIGHT! Kill it, and kill it now. I spent two years and lots of time and money trying to live with a terrorist. When he went for my face and eyes, I came to my senses, grabbed by the neck and wrang it, put him in a trash bag, and threw him into a dumpster, regretting my ever having tolerated him.
I now have three nice roosters who never confront or challenge me or my wife. Anything short of a non-aggressive rooster belongs in a pot with dumplings.​

 

[CPW Chicks]

We had an EE Roo that started attacking as he was maturing. It started with him going after my kids; once he chased my daughter around, and another time he actually flew up and put out his spurs at my son. I interfered and he never touched my son but it scared me to death, so I told my kids to stay out of the chicken run and coop area, which was not fair to them since they loved helping out. The next couple of weeks he started charging me and my sister to the point that I carried a baseball bat with me every time I went in the coop or run. We didn't want to kill him as he was our pet and we did love him, but one morning when my sister went to let the chickens out she forgot to take the bat with her and as she was going to leave he attacked her. Thankfully she didn't get hurt because she was wearing a very thick jacket and fought back, but that was the last draw. He was dead by the end of the day. Don't put yourself or kids at risk for roo.

 

[pkw]

I once had a rooster come charging me ready to spur me and I grabbed a shovel and lifted it to conk the rooster on the head but he died of a heart attack first (I guess it was a heart attack because he died at the sight of the shovel coming down).

I have had some of my 9 week old cockerels wanting to peck my legs more (which pecking is a no no and I let them know it too) and once I correct them on that the other chickens will peck at whoever did a bad thing to me as if to let them know not to hurt their chicken momma again. They settle down and are usually good for a while before one decides to act up again.

The aggressive ones won't stay alive here.

 

[Oven Ready]

It seems to me that you already have enough roosters (i.e. one) and Spunky is one too many. Even if he gives up on you and your family, he'll be waiting for the day when your current rooster slips up, and he'll make his move to be top rooster. Trust me, the aftermath of two roosters really going at it is not a pretty sight, spurs or not - you could easily lose both of them. He will also become a pain with the girls, the minute your old rooster isn't looking he'll be chasing them down, and forcing himself on them. This leads to bald patches, missing tails, cut and bruised heads and an awful lot of frantic running around.

We have 70+ bantams which includes about 40 breeding age girls, one rooster and two cockerels and a heap of juveniles/chicks.
I like to distinguish between rooster (the top cockerel) and cockerels (the boys in waiting) and so do they. The cockerels get to fumble with the younger girls, but they get a sharp lesson if they go anywhere near the more mature girls. I've seen people say 1 rooster to 6 hens or 1 to 10 or 1 to 20 but to be honest, the amount of effort the rooster actually puts in to the act (a quick dance and then a quick fumble) he has plenty time for it to be a ratio of 1 to 100. Keeping a check on the two younger boys is what he spends most energy on.

We kill all our young cockerels at 5 months - just as they are thinking of becoming potential roosters (unless we are going to use them for breeding obv.)

We've never had trouble with aggressive (to people) birds.

Sounds like Spunky has got to go somewhere.

 

[Dogfish]

Our rehomed-to-us roo was agressive on day #1. Caught him in a salmon net after chasing him around the yard for a bit. Held him down and growled at him on his back. Did it again later that day, and once a day for the last 5 days. My sons have also done it, ages 11 and 14. We have not seen any sort of challenges since then, and he has backed off of the turkeys and CX as well.

I have a kill cone, pressure canner, and crockpot, just in case. He seems to be working out though, now that we have settled the "order" of things for the time being. We also trimmed his spurs, thanks to some advise I got here.

 

[Wynette]

Check this thread - it's older, but was very helpful to me when I had an aggressive one that I wanted to keep, not kill:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=131593

 

[ray2310]

We gave up trying and ate our aggressive roo.