- Aug 16, 2013
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Yes. Aggressive to other roosters. But not their people. And it doesn't mean you only have to have one, you just have to be creative.
Aggressive Rooster - Best Rooster Breed
- Thread starter Aleelupton
- Start date
Agressive towards other roosters in a crowded space with insufficient hens, YES. Agressive towards people??? BIG NO!!!
CalBickieMomma
Crowing
I currently have a 14 month old Olive Egger rooster (Blue Ameraucana × Black Copper Marans) that is extremely aggressive towards humans. He is great with the hens and is very attentive and always alerts them to food, predators, and when it's time for bed. However, we recently had 2 intruders and he did NOTHING. We had a neighbors Guniea visit our coop a few weeks ago and it pecked one of our hens a few times and the rooster didn't do anything about it. Yesterday we had a skunk in our coop because we left the doors open for them to free range and again the rooster did nothing. It seems that the rooster only protects the hens against us. My 3 year old niece loves the chickens and I would never forgive myself if the rooster attacked her. He's already scared away my mother in law and to be honest I hate him. We are considering getting rid of him and are wondering if there are specific breeds of rooster that are known for being great with the flock and docile towards people. Any advice and suggestions are appreciated
Since joining BackYard Chickens, I’ve learned lots about people’s rooster experiences. I can only offer advice from my experience (so take it with a grain of salt), but I’ve been lucky with roosters and happen to love them (maybe that’s my secret
).I’ve only had experience with two EE/Ameraucana roosters in my life. The first was with an aggressive one we adopted from a friend when I was young (because at that point in my life, ALL my roosters had been good boys - if not friendly, at least non-aggressive). My ‘nice’ roosters were mostly mixed breeds, and not necessarily descended from the friendlier breeds. I always told people that the secret to getting nice roosters was to raise them from eggs and spend time handling them and treating them like beloved pets. That method doesn’t work for everyone, I have learned, but it’s worked for me. But the new rooster was aggressive and since I was still a kid, I reacted accordingly - ran away screaming and roamed my yard with a form of defense, just in case (usually a stick or a rake).
Looks like your roo might be past that the point of extra cuddles=a sweet boy, though. Which leads me to the second EE/Ameraucana rooster I’ve had experience with. He showed up in our neighborhood when I was away at college and was terrorizing the neighbors. By that time, mean roosters didn’t scare me anymore. One day I walked up to him and, yes, he started attacking my legs, but I reached down and picked him up and just started petting him. He calmed after that and from that point on when he’d come running toward me he’d stop and glance up at me as if he remembered I wasn’t afraid of him.
So, you can try that method - tolerating a few scratches until you can get ahold of him to pick him up and just hold him for a while (but be careful because I had a roo once I had raised since he was about a month old who turned on me when he matured. I had to wrap a towel around him and even as I held him he STILL managed to peck me a few times. That was the only time in my life a rooster I raised could not be tamed). BUT I’ve also read that if you establish yourself as the dominant ‘rooster’ he may not be as protective of the hens (though it looks like yours already slacking on the job).
ALSO, if you are successful and holding him a bit discourages him from attacking you, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll leave any other family members alone. Would hate for him to go after your niece (and have her traumatized for life). Anyway, hope this helps somewhat!
EggWalrus
Free Ranging
Most roosters are just an alarm to warn the hens of danger. Once in a while you'll come across one that will put him self between the hens and danger, you want to keep and breed these. Even more rare is to have a rooster that will actively attack a predator to protect his flock. I've had a few and they were all Game mixes. When I realized I had a "special" rooster that was human friendly but loved to attack anything that came on his domain, I started breeding him. Named him Gojira (after Godzilla). Several of his sons are like him but only about one in ten. Three of his young sons killed a possum that made the mistake of trying to cross the yard one day not long ago. Sadly, Gojira isn't with us anymore. Even though he thought he was 50 feet tall, he was no match for a coyote, but he did give then hens time enough to get away.
EggWalrus
Free Ranging
- Thread starter
- #107
Aleelupton
Songster
Our guy is huge and hard for me to hold. My husband tries that method, but it doesn't work anymore. Last time he picked him up the rooster pecked him in the face. That's when we realized there was nothing else we could do to correct his behaviorSince joining BackYard Chickens, I’ve learned lots about people’s rooster experiences. I can only offer advice from my experience (so take it with a grain of salt), but I’ve been lucky with roosters and happen to love them (maybe that’s my secret
I’ve only had experience with two EE/Ameraucana roosters in my life. The first was with an aggressive one we adopted from a friend when I was young (because at that point in my life, ALL my roosters had been good boys - if not friendly, at least non-aggressive). My ‘nice’ roosters were mostly mixed breeds, and not necessarily descended from the friendlier breeds. I always told people that the secret to getting nice roosters was to raise them from eggs and spend time handling them and treating them like beloved pets. That method doesn’t work for everyone, I have learned, but it’s worked for me. But the new rooster was aggressive and since I was still a kid, I reacted accordingly - ran away screaming and roamed my yard with a form of defense, just in case (usually a stick or a rake).
Looks like your roo might be past that the point of extra cuddles=a sweet boy, though. Which leads me to the second EE/Ameraucana rooster I’ve had experience with. He showed up in our neighborhood when I was away at college and was terrorizing the neighbors. By that time, mean roosters didn’t scare me anymore. One day I walked up to him and, yes, he started attacking my legs, but I reached down and picked him up and just started petting him. He calmed after that and from that point on when he’d come running toward me he’d stop and glance up at me as if he remembered I wasn’t afraid of him.
So, you can try that method - tolerating a few scratches until you can get ahold of him to pick him up and just hold him for a while (but be careful because I had a roo once I had raised since he was about a month old who turned on me when he matured. I had to wrap a towel around him and even as I held him he STILL managed to peck me a few times. That was the only time in my life a rooster I raised could not be tamed). BUT I’ve also read that if you establish yourself as the dominant ‘rooster’ he may not be as protective of the hens (though it looks like yours already slacking on the job).
ALSO, if you are successful and holding him a bit discourages him from attacking you, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll leave any other family members alone. Would hate for him to go after your niece (and have her traumatized for life). Anyway, hope this helps somewhat!
CalBickieMomma
Crowing
Our guy is huge and hard for me to hold. My husband tries that method, but it doesn't work anymore. Last time he picked him up the rooster pecked him in the face. That's when we realized there was nothing else we could do to correct his behavior
Oh, bummer! Yeah, sounds like your boy is a real pill
. My Charlemagne (boy I rescued from a stray cat when he was about a month old) pecked me in the face. I still kept him (separated from everyone else, of course, because I didn’t have the heart to let him roam free - where he might attack us in the yard on a daily basis or get killed by the dogs or other predators), and I would still wrap him in a towel if ever I had to check on him for fleas or other possible ailments. But after he pecked me that one time, I was careful. Don’t know why he was so aggressive (maybe because he was an American Game fowl, but I’d had game fowl roosters before who weren’t aggressive towards me), but I tried to make the best of it. Good luck with your situation!
jerrysgirl1984
Chirping
thank you for this info, my Orpington Rooster has been inclined to jump on me and I wack him with a stick or the small gardening rake I carry into the coop he still has been inclined to jump at me, hes a stinker, Ive had several ROTTEN Roosters that I wound up hating because they terrorized me, its kinda funny looking back on it but at the time it was very aggravating
Trimurtisan
Flying by the seat of my pants!
I am very much looking forward to some mature O Shamos. ~36 hours old here, currently at 3 days old.
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