Aggressive rooster

[Jl neighborhood flock]

Thank you for these ideas.

 

[Jl neighborhood flock]

Now I do have one question- do you guys have any idea as to why he is attacking everyone. I know one person was telling me that they can sense the energy in small kids, because I’ve noticed that Jerry has only been attacking my younger kids- like 8 years and younger. I’m wondering if he sees their energetic nature as a threat?

Cull him if you have to rehome him anyway

 

[FrostRanger]

He's attacking your kids simply 'cause they they're smaller. He will eventually move on to attacking adults too once he gets more cocky. Human aggression is often genetic so he was probably going to start attacking humans no matter what you did or didn't do. If it wasn't your kid, it would have been you or someone else. Absolutely the energy one brings matters, but I don't think that was the cause here. He is simply a garbage rooster

 

[Mrs. K]

They are opportunist, generally attack kids first, then women, then men. There really is no training them, and they tend to get worse and worse, and can actually cause some pretty wretched injuries.

Mrs K

 

[TexasBlues]

I have two chickens and a rooster, this rooster- Jerry, being extremely aggressive, by chasing and hurting the rest of my family. Do you guys have any idea on how we can keep him calmed down?

Was he hatched/raised by a hen?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Now I do have one question- do you guys have any idea as to why he is attacking everyone

There could be different reasons. Each chicken has its own personality and we keep them in different conditions. Just like with people, different chickens can react differently to the same stimulus. People want clearcut easy answers but life is not always that simple.

How much is nature (inherited) versus nurture (learned behavior) can vary. I think it is a combination of both. How much is nature versus nurture can vary greatly by individual.

Perhaps he sees you and your family as his hens. He is the flock master and you won't do as he wants so he tried to force you by attacking. Perhaps he sees you as a rival for his dominant position as flock master. Perhaps he sees you at threatening his hens. Perhaps something else. You may never know what caused it.

I understand the desire to understand why so maybe you can avoid it in the future. But the bottom line is that he is a danger to you and yours. To me, that is intolerable.

I'll tell a story from a few years back on this forum. A family had a great flock of free ranging chickens. The rooster was great around the family. Then one day he started attacking their five-year-old son. If the rooster saw him a long distance away he would charge the kid. That man would answer questions, many people on this forum won't bother which makes it hard to try to determine what happened.

It turned out that his son had been chasing the hens. That was so cute to see. They encouraged him. He was having a great time chasing those hens. But the rooster did not see it that way. He thought his hens were being threatened so he defended his flock. That is what a good rooster should do. But by defending his flock from that 5-year-old he had to go. He became a danger to a human. Some roosters would be OK with people handling or chasing their hens. Some are not.

Many people have theories as to how you should treat a cockerel so he does not become human aggressive. I have a few of those of my own. When I need to catch chickens during the day I use a fish net. The first one I catch and lock away is the rooster so he does not see me threatening his hens. If you read enough stories on this forum you will find cases where some roosters that were handled a lot are OK and some are not. You'll find cases where some roosters were not handled and were OK while others turned out differently. Some are vicious from the start, some turn later. Many never turn. I firmly believe there is no one thing that works every time for every rooster on the planet. They are all individuals and we all have different environments for them.

I don't have a clue why your boy became human aggressive. But he has. To me that is the bottom line of what you need to do.

 

[Jl neighborhood flock]

Smart, I think I am going to cull him, the only issue with that though is that I have two other hens- are they going to be okay?

 

[Jl neighborhood flock]

Or should I get more then cull him, it’s something that I don’t want to do but he is becoming way to much of a problem. Thank you all for the advice

 

[FrostRanger]

They'll be fine, they might even be relieved

 

[FrostRanger]

Or should I get more then cull him, it’s something that I don’t want to do but he is becoming way to much of a problem. Thank you all for the advice

Unless you just want more birds, I wouldn't. Integration is stressful in its own right on everyone involved. I wouldn't shake up flock dynamics more