Aggressive rooster issues

[Wildgrass]

Hi there! I could really use some input from other rooster owners about my situation. I am new to chicken keeping and am not sure what is normal here.

I got my first rooster last year as a chick, a Dominique. As he matured he became more and more territorial toward humans and animals and began attacking humans on sight, no matter how many times I held him down or carried him around or gave him treats. He would always get right back up and come charging at me. Besides that, he also wore the back feathers off of all of my 8 hens, and chased them to mate, and sometimes just grabbed them and pulled at their head feathers without even mating! He seemed really awful. I ended up dispatching him earlier this year because he was a danger to visitors and I couldn’t do work in the chicken yard. RIP, Miranda.

So, that was my first rooster experience. As it happens, of the three surviving chicks I got this year, my “olive egger” turned out to be a cockerel. At first I was excited, because he’d been the friendliest chick, and I had wanted a rooster for the flock for protection, and maybe sustainability further down the road. But Dave the rooster is now about 5 months old and, while he’s backed down from challenging me a couple of times, he is chasing all the hens and forcing them to mate. They are all trying to avoid him, and the poor girls still haven’t grown their feathers back from Miranda’s reign of terror.

I think my big question is, is this what it’s like to own a rooster? How common is it to find one who doesn’t wear the back feathers off 10 hens? Dave is a beautiful boy, but I love my hens so much, I’m not willing to subject them to the kind of behavior I saw from Miranda and the kind of behavior Dave is showing now. I’m actually going to call around to see if any places nearby offer chemical castration, because I don’t want to kill Dave, but my bigger question is definitely, are most roosters like this? Or am I having bad luck here?

 

[nuthatched]

You're having bad luck, I'd dispatch Dave and get a young chick cockerel for the hens to raise and teach manners to.
A good rooster will ask permission to mate by doing a little dance around the hen and will go by the hen decisions. A bad one will just jump her and hold her down to force her.
A good rooster will show his ladies all the best spots to lay eggs, show the best food, defend them and escort them after they lay an egg.
A bad one's only concerns are 'food for me' and mating.

 

[OzarkChooks]

We just called one of our roosters for attacking our kids. He also would abuse the hens. He would grab their heads and shake them around, ripping out all their feathers. 2 of our hens were so traumatized they stayed in the woods and spent all day hiding from him. We currently have one rooster left and he is not abusive. He is young so he is still exuberant when mating, but he doesn't leave a pile of feathers behind when he's done and the hens don't hide from him. I would say, in my very limited experience, that a rooster who is mean to the hens is not worth having.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
Only polite cockerels and roosters are worth having! You have had two who aren't good, and eliminating this second cockerel will be a good thing.
Better luck in spring!
We raise straight run chicks every year, and keep a very very few of the cockerels. It's part of being a good flock manager, and your hens and pullets deserve better.
Mary

 

[Wildgrass]

Thank you all! It’s nice to get confirmation that roosters don’t all terrorize their hens. Dave is probably on his way to the roaster once I wrap my head around it. People who’ve raised a lot of chickens, how many cockerels do you think you go through to get a “good” rooster?

 

[Folly's place]

How many? There's no magic number!
Our first was a total jerk, and we held on to him too long. We all start somewhere! Gaining experience, as you are this year, makes it easier to decide, and learning how to see behaviors as they develop sooner helps a lot.
Our second rooster was fine, and since then we've had more good than bad individuals. If you will be raising home bred chicks, selecting good breeders matters a lot. Then some breeds have a higher % of either good boys or bad, and without knowing parent lines you just have to grow them and see.
Our worst was a bantam who was attacking us at eight weeks of age! A couple of times we've had roosters decide to become human aggressive as adults, and they didn't last long either. Full on attacks don't come without advanced warning signs, and that's where experience matters, so you can pick up on those clues before anyone is injured.
And cockerels who actually injure hens or pullets don't improve the flock either!
Mary

 

[Wildgrass]

Well, he started attacking me today, so I've about had it with Dave. I've read that having adult hens to teach a cockerel his place can be helpful to getting a "good" rooster, and all of my adult hens were raised alongside the awful one I killed this year (and are being bullied by Dave now), so I'm wondering if I need to start with no roosters and some new pullets first. I'm not looking to add more hens to the flock next year, so I am just...tired of this problem. It was a rough day for chickenkeeping today.

Everyone's advice has been really helpful, though, and much appreciated.

 

[Rockin 7B Ranch]

Hi so just a little while ago my family had this problem as well , which Ended up with him getting culled. Then we ended up getting another and knowing what he could turn into I have made sure to socialize him. As far as the mating goes it might be worth it to look into chicken saddles we were never able to get them before he ended up getting culled but they are definitely worth it. I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through this it’s no fun having an aggressive rooster towards the hens or people.

 

[miles2go480]

Thanks so much for this information. I have 2 beautiful Roosters. Hank my brown leghorn is sweet and polite always with the girls. Gregor a speckled Sussex was slow to mature but once he started crowing he started attacking the girls. That was about 3 months ago. In the past 6 weeks he started going after my husband when he would let them out to free range. And over the past two weeks coming at me. He flogged me when I was putting down morning treat trays. I don't want mean chickens so will go ahead with the plan to cull him for Thanksgiving. I was hoping we could turn him into a sweet boy.

 

[Folly's place]

Years ago I wanted to raise SS, because I love the hens! We never got any from breeders, but from two separate hatcheries, straight run. Again, the hens are lovely, but literally half of the dozen cockerels were jerks. The nice big ones were human aggressive, and the smaller were delightful. We rehomed the good boys, ate the nasties, and gave up on raising them. We will always have at least one hen, but not the roosters.
Mary