Aggressive Rooster

[CrazyTalk]

I wonder if he's going to run from your niece, nephew, grandchild ect. Good luck with that.

And this is exactly the point.

And to ask another rhetorical: Will his offspring run from your kids, etc?

 

[appps]

Not sure why the kick the crap out of it and beat it with a broom is the rooster friendly advice and cull is considered mean. Imagine if someone suggested doing that to their puppy........

Ours just got worse and worse, I did the catch and hold techniques and it was fairly well behaved round me but it would throw itself at my youngest daughter through the wire and in the end she was too scared to go near the other chickens. It attacked my eldest daughter one day who never has anything to do with them (in fact she is at that age we sometimes wonder if she remembers there is an outside ) and as she had heard us talking she chased it down and caught it to hold. I kinda stood there stunned to be honest as I never expected her to not run, I had been on my way to get it when it happened and it actually stalked her. It got closer as she turned her back and stopped when she looked towards it. She had hold of it very proud of catching him and he flicked his head round and took a bite drawing blood on her cheek just below her eye.

So, I guess what I'm saying is till you have decided if you are going to get rid of it or try teaching it you are boss you must keep the kids away from it. If you decide to use the rooster taming techniques be prepared to do it every day and realise you need to teach it that it is the whole family not just you so everyone is going to have to take turns holing it under their arms. Can't tell you how ours turned out as around the same time the neighbours lodged an official complaint about his crowing and I have to say it was sort of a relief not to have to deal with it any longer.

 

[DRGLENNON]

Not sure why the kick the crap out of it and beat it with a broom is the rooster friendly advice and cull is considered mean. Imagine if someone suggested doing that to their puppy........

Ours just got worse and worse, I did the catch and hold techniques and it was fairly well behaved round me but it would throw itself at my youngest daughter through the wire and in the end she was too scared to go near the other chickens. It attacked my eldest daughter one day who never has anything to do with them (in fact she is at that age we sometimes wonder if she remembers there is an outside ) and as she had heard us talking she chased it down and caught it to hold. I kinda stood there stunned to be honest as I never expected her to not run, I had been on my way to get it when it happened and it actually stalked her. It got closer as she turned her back and stopped when she looked towards it. She had hold of it very proud of catching him and he flicked his head round and took a bite drawing blood on her cheek just below her eye.

So, I guess what I'm saying is till you have decided if you are going to get rid of it or try teaching it you are boss you must keep the kids away from it. If you decide to use the rooster taming techniques be prepared to do it every day and realise you need to teach it that it is the whole family not just you so everyone is going to have to take turns holing it under their arms. Can't tell you how ours turned out as around the same time the neighbours lodged an official complaint about his crowing and I have to say it was sort of a relief not to have to deal with it any longer.

I ended up with a cockerel that was supposed to be a pullet. I've kept him because he is so well behaved. I have no real need for him but the stories of all the aggressive roos I can't just cull such a well behaved one. I think if some people could experience the difference it might change some minds. Lots of good roos out there, no need to fight a bad one.

 

[Peeps61]

I wonder if he's going to run from your niece, nephew, grandchild ect. Good luck with that.

Since he's dead, I think I won't have any problems at all. The post was meant to be humorous.

 

[DRGLENNON]

Since he's dead, I think I won't have any problems at all. The post was meant to be humorous.

lol. sry. sometimes I'm a little slow and it takes awhile to catch up.

 

[Ravennest]

ouch...

 

[nvdirtfreak]

I agree - bye-bye rooster! I would never keep an aggressive animal around my kids. And to compare a chicken to a dog is plain silly - dogs are ten times more valuable than a rooster, and a hundred times smarter, meaning they can correct the behavior much more reliably. Even so, I wouldn't keep a dog that nipped at my children, either, unless it was a clear-cut case of self-defense or boundary-setting ("don't pull on my tail - that hurts!").

 

[chooks4life]

And this is exactly the point.

And to ask another rhetorical: Will his offspring run from your kids, etc?

X2 what you both have said, and in my experience the answer is NO. One traumatic incident basically almost never gains permanent respect, unless you happen to have scales. I've never seen chooks learn so quick as when being 'tutored' by something reptilian, like a snake or lizard, LOL! No repeat lesson required.

If the person you two replied to reads through this forum they will find endless stories of the 'man of the house' gaining some respect from the rooster via use of or threat of violence, but the 'woman of the house' and the kids remain permanently living in fear of that rooster.

They are more than capable of distinguishing between humans and between a fight-ready human versus one that is vulnerable, an armed human versus an unarmed one, and so many other small factors that can influence their decision to attack 'out of the blue' as people tend to say... Such as seeing when their human nemesis is distracted... They're not actually stupid animals.

Hierarchy remains fluid, chickens are always socially upwards-mobile unless permanently incapacitated or psychologically extremely weak (i.e. a cockerel I was given recently has shown he's one of those, he will never be alpha or any less than lowest-rung because he is extremely high anxiety and he's the sort that will permanently run in fear from a single past traumatic incident. But, he's also the sort that can't breed because he's so high strung even a suggestion of rejection would send him fleeing and squawking in terror).

Best wishes.

 

[chooks4life]

Not sure why the kick the crap out of it and beat it with a broom is the rooster friendly advice and cull is considered mean. Imagine if someone suggested doing that to their puppy........

Ours just got worse and worse, I did the catch and hold techniques and it was fairly well behaved round me but it would throw itself at my youngest daughter through the wire and in the end she was too scared to go near the other chickens. It attacked my eldest daughter one day who never has anything to do with them (in fact she is at that age we sometimes wonder if she remembers there is an outside ) and as she had heard us talking she chased it down and caught it to hold. I kinda stood there stunned to be honest as I never expected her to not run, I had been on my way to get it when it happened and it actually stalked her. It got closer as she turned her back and stopped when she looked towards it. She had hold of it very proud of catching him and he flicked his head round and took a bite drawing blood on her cheek just below her eye.

So, I guess what I'm saying is till you have decided if you are going to get rid of it or try teaching it you are boss you must keep the kids away from it. If you decide to use the rooster taming techniques be prepared to do it every day and realise you need to teach it that it is the whole family not just you so everyone is going to have to take turns holing it under their arms. Can't tell you how ours turned out as around the same time the neighbours lodged an official complaint about his crowing and I have to say it was sort of a relief not to have to deal with it any longer.

I have tried the methods you're stating, really I tried nigh on all methods, initially. As you say, it's cruel to brutalize them into submission, while it makes some sense to do so I found it unacceptable and not even a long term solution. That is NOT what the kids should learn, nor the animals, nor is it something I want to do, to attack animals to get respect from them. Too many animals out there that don't require fear of death to respect humans, it's unjustifiable to beat them into respect as though there is no alternative.

I found limited success with them using all methods I tried, including the golden oldie (catch, hold, etc), meaning I had to continually repeat it throughout their lifetimes (so, managing, not curing) --- only for their offspring, and the offspring of their offspring, to require the exact same permanently ongoing treatment. No, sorry, I do NOT have the time of day/life to continually coerce human-hating roosters to vaguely show some short term tolerance of me and my family.

If they genuinely are human-averse, respect that decision, and be rid of them, I reckon. You can't alter what traits they're passing on by forcibly applying cosmetic behavior corrections.

I did have the whole family involved, but sooner or later you realize, hey, the toddlers can't do this, we can't always guarantee 100% that the youngest or visitors' kids won't end up unsupervised with them (mine were free range, but even with caged chooks kids invite themselves into cages pretty routinely)... I can't abide the idea of being responsible for a mauled child, so I took the 'offensive' initiative and removed those bloodlines, since actual permanent success was very plainly not forthcoming anyway.

Within a very short time, it was kind of like the utopia many people sadly insist you can't get with your flocks; years on, I have never had another problem with an aggressive rooster of my own breeding, though in future as I continue to get new blood in I expect sooner or later I'll have another one, but, I keep a close eye on all chooks anyway. Like with any animal, trust is okay, but supervision is important as an ongoing control method.

Best wishes.

I agree - bye-bye rooster! I would never keep an aggressive animal around my kids. And to compare a chicken to a dog is plain silly - dogs are ten times more valuable than a rooster, and a hundred times smarter, meaning they can correct the behavior much more reliably. Even so, I wouldn't keep a dog that nipped at my children, either, unless it was a clear-cut case of self-defense or boundary-setting ("don't pull on my tail - that hurts!").

Hmm, after keeping dogs for years as well as living with family member's dogs, I don't find the comparison as silly as I once did. You also find others on this forum that have kept dogs and chooks for years often also compare them.

Maybe you're used to intelligent dogs, but there's no guarantee a dog is 100 times smarter than a chicken, I've known chickens that intellectually leave some dogs in the dust, same is true of sheep, goats, etc. Dogs don't have a monopoly on domestic animal intelligence, it's just that most people are more attuned to and able to discern intelligence in dogs. I've known some absolutely stupid dogs.

Best wishes.

 

[chickiecorin]

Now i have a similar question to everyones... my roo isnt aggressive unless hes cornered. i can approach him in the yard, i can take the hens out of the coop, i can be in the coop with everyone working, but if hes backed into a corner, he starts jumping and puffing up. and i mean like within a foot of me and no way around. normally he will run if he has the chance. he runs from kids, our dog, even our half blind cat. Wyatts a big boy, hes a jersey giant australorp mix. my chickens free range and he has never shown any aggresion towards humans while out. Its just if hes cornered in the house. we arent afraid of him. Hes been the only roo my kids can handle regularly in the yard. Hes our 3rd roo... #1 wouldnt come when called or go in at night. He got eaten by something. #2 was a huge nasty bugger who lasted 3 days before he took off. He spurred hubby the first day. we found his carcass stuffed in the bean field a few weeks later. (We have mink around here) would that be a reasonalble rooster response? Hes 5 mos old now. id like to think thats just the "oh crap im stuck" response, but our hens do the submissive squat and our other roos werent much to go on obviously. any ideas? He does his job, we havnt lost a chicken to anything but old age sine he came along, and hes gentle with the ladies if you catch my drift. I have no hesitations about culling a bastardy chicken, but this guy im just not sure its actual human aggression more than fear response?