Aggressive rooster issues

[miles2go480]

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

I love my hens. The female SS are sweet and have cool hen chatter. Love him. He is big and beautiful with a smoky throat crow. MY son is sad, he loves all the chickens. He understands we cannot keep aggressive animals of any kind, so Gregor has to go. We try holding and waking around with him, but he wants to charge people. Our neighbor's dog plays chase with him when he is in the yard. He eventually tires of charging her to have her charge back at him. He gives up and returns to walking around with the flock. She lays under a tree and watches the flock, and him. It is hilarious to watch. Everyday he goes back for more. If nothing else my chickens are entertaining. My husband calls it my gazing ball time. Thanks for your input. Makes it easier to know someone else has been through similar.

 

[Boomerwaffen]

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?

Our rooster is 5 months old too and got aggressive with me and grabbed him and gave him some gentle but firm behavior mod and he stopped. At this age their hormones are raging. But he shouldn’t be as bad as you’re describing. Also you’ve got more than enough hens for him. Your rooster needs to go into a pot. Get another one. His breed should be more docile too. Maybe use a different breeder. But try calling the breeder and let them know. Ask if anyone else is having issues with that breed. Maybe the site was aggressive too. Anyway you should cull that bad boy and get something more docile.

 

[Boomerwaffen]

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.

Where are you at in the Ozarks? I’m from the Ozarks originally but we live in California now.

 

[Fl Granny17]

I love my hens. The female SS are sweet and have cool hen chatter. Love him. He is big and beautiful with a smoky throat crow. MY son is sad, he loves all the chickens. He understands we cannot keep aggressive animals of any kind, so Gregor has to go. We try holding and waking around with him, but he wants to charge people. Our neighbor's dog plays chase with him when he is in the yard. He eventually tires of charging her to have her charge back at him. He gives up and returns to walking around with the flock. She lays under a tree and watches the flock, and him. It is hilarious to watch. Everyday he goes back for more. If nothing else my chickens are entertaining. My husband calls it my gazing ball time. Thanks for your input. Makes it easier to know someone else has been through similar.

I definitely feel your pain! I raised my baby rooster in my bathtub and hand fed him. After he matured he wants to kill me! He hides under my truck and in bushes and ambushes me! Word to EVERYONE out there ... let your spur wound bleed for a bit to rinse nasty bacteria out - flush with peroxide then put a band-aid with triple antibiotic ointment on it along with a cold compress! I've learned all this the hard way ... you don't want a nasty infection from a dirty spur! See my earlier post on taking the offensive. Even today I had to grab my roo when he came at me (with elbow length silicone gloves on) and hold him by his legs upside down for a minute. This method seems to keep him wary of me for 3 or 4 days but then he's back being aggressive. Everyone advises me to send him to 'freezer camp' but I just can't ... My situation is weird because I seem to be the only one he's aggressive towards. I removed his spur covering which has helped with injury to me and also been VERY beneficial to my hens' backs!

 

[Fl Granny17]

Where are you at in the Ozarks? I’m from the Ozarks originally but we live in California now.

That is horrific! Have not seen that level of aggression towards the hens before! Sounds counterproductive to the natural purpose of breeding. My rooster has pulled neck feathers (holding on to the hen) and scraped back feathers off with his spurs. Which is why I remove that fingernail like coating off of his spurs now ... and that helps

 

[Boomerwaffen]

That is horrific! Have not seen that level of aggression towards the hens before! Sounds counterproductive to the natural purpose of breeding. My rooster has pulled neck feathers (holding on to the hen) and scraped back feathers off with his spurs. Which is why I remove that fingernail like coating off of his spurs now ... and that helps

Yeah definitely can’t tolerate any aggression towards humans. Lamar never hurts the hens. He’s afraid of our large Embden gander and now our drake Bob. He tried to impregnate Bob which pissed off both Bob and Tony our gander. Lamar has given up going after the 3 of us. But he went after our 13 year old son yesterday and got the boot for his troubles and ran off. I’m ok with a level of aggression as we plan to free range them in the spring and we have a lot of predators. We got him for that reason as well as the Drake and fat Tony the goose. Fat Tony is very calm and sweet with the other birds and people. He loves riding in the truck with us to the farm supply store. But the other day I’d set out a plastic hawk as a scare crow. Tony saw it and went crazy then flew down to it to attack it.

 

[jorgearenas]

I don’t have experience with that breed but when it comes to RIR’s, Bar Rocks, Buff Orph., and cuccos; When they come of age, they might want to challenge you as well so one has to recognize when it’s a challenge and take action right away; I had this happen to me with one of my RIR’s, he kept wanting to attack me so i fought back like a Roo does, grab them from the comb(back of neck too) and pin their head down on the ground. Of course I’m gentle not to hurt them to cause injury but enough for their submission(chase them around if need be to tire them out helps too).In my opinion, it’s the natural thing to do since they only understand the pecking order when it comes to dominance..pic will show submission. He would attack most often when it’s feeding time so firstt thing I’d do is go after him to let him know that I’m in charge of the area. In regards to Roo man handling your hens; I’ve at times sat around waiting for him to mount a hen and then chase him off. Again, it’s Dominance, you want to let your Roo know that you’re the ultimate Alpha and will always think twice before mounting a hen. Might work for some Roosters, might not for others but it takes patience and time with them so they understand this. Hopefully this helps

 

[miles2go480]

How did you remove the spur caps? I may keep him... just don't want anyone hurt after he gets older

 

[jorgearenas]

How did you remove the spur caps? I may keep him... just don't want anyone hurt after he gets older

I don’t remove their spurs or clip them