Aggressive Silkie Roo? Really???

[kipper]

We have an aggressive silkie roo. Really - a SILKIE! He was great until he turned 1 year, then began attacking us. We have are sick of him attacking us, but mostly just ignore him as it doesn't hurt.

He is "the man" in a good sized yard and pen. He shares it with a Silkie girl, two Easteregger hens, and 3 Giant Cochin hens. All of his girls very submissive and easy going, they have been put in that pen because they were at the bottom of the pecking order in the big flock. He gets plenty of good feed, water, fruit, and veggies. Spoiled, really.

We plan to redistribute our birds and put all our bantam girls in there with him and his silkie girl. No huge hens, just a harem of small girls he can romance. We hope this, uh, "arrangement" might calm him down as we suspect some frustration with hens that are way too big. Or he may just be a jerk?

Have you ever heard of a mean Silkie????

 

[wolftracks]

I'm down to two Silkie roos. My black one is a sweetheart, The white one???? I think he's possessed.

He trys to spur every time I open the Silkie pen.

I have 2 white hens. One is very sweet, the other acts like she has to run for her life whenever you go near her.

Yes Silkies can be nut cases.

 

[ginbart]

Yes, I had one. I had to pick him up everyday for about 2 weeks, I made my son pick hime up and hold him. They are no different than a bigger bird. He's a lot better now. But every now and then he tries to get us so again it's picking him up for a least 15 minutes a day. Good luck with him.

 

[paramedic07]

my white silkie roo is a complete ************** ************ . he is prone to pick on chicks of any age and too agressively goes after all hens and pullets of any age pulling out feathers on the back side, face, neck, and tail.

so i put him in his own bachelor pen by himself. i was begged to spare 'im. i was about to practice with the buck shots i got for my shot gun otherwise.

all my girls are starting to get their feathers growing back in now and are much more mellow and relaxed.

 

[JP101010]

Yes! We have Steadman and hes just a jerk lol , he is a 2 year old silkie rooster who will flog anybody he can- the only thing that worked for me , hubby and unsuspecting guests is to what we call " be a bigger rooster" - hands up , knees bent , jogging pace and run! run after the rooster- one to two times of this and the rooster stops trying to flog the person for good. We have never had to actually do anything physically to him during the chase. We also have a 1 1/2 year old silkie rooster named Johny and hes just a sweetheart

 

[Shannon33]

Yep, I had one that was fine until he was a little over a year old. One day I went in to feed them and when I was crouched over he flew up kicking into my face. I stood up and backed away from him and he came at me kicking and pecking at my feet. After that he was fine for a few days and then tried the same thing on my husband. We have a feed store near us that will take birds so off he went. I liked him, but we don't keep a lot of chickens so being a rooster around here is a prized spot which can happily be filled by a nice bird.

 

[chickenbottom]

i had two white silkie roosters cotton and felix. they both attacked me numerious times and they got made into soup i treated them well as babies a babied them cause there so darn fluffy i dont know what it is with them.

 

[kipper]

Okay, the offending rooster is also white! "Billy Idol". My husband held him upside down for a minute and he was better for a while. I must admit when I was attacked in the past, I flicked him accross the pen with my foot (hooked him and atlatled him). Now I ignore his feeble attempts to hurt me.

This is funny:
He attacked me last weekend and when he recoiled following his assault on me be backed up against the fence. The very mellow standard sized roo on the other side has apparently had enough of Billy attacking "the lady who brings treats" and grabbed his fluffy white tail and yanked out a clump of feathers. Billy screeched and ran for it!

 

[Laurajean]

My Silkie Roo is a total jerk. He's always suspicious of me, eyeballs me, crows at me when I'm in the run, used to attack me. Doesn't attack so much these days, because we've come to an understanding that I bribe and distract him with treats whenever entering the run. In the beginning I really wanted to re-home him, but for some reason I'm kinda growing fond of the little jerk. He takes care of the hens, shuffles them to safety if he thinks I'm up to something, he just wants to be boss. I don't take it personally anymore. I've read MANY posts about people bullying their roos in an attempt to force submission, and while that may work for them, I take a different approach. I just ignore him and act like he doesn't bother me, throw him some treats and he backs off. It works pretty well.

A side note: For some strange reason, he HATES it when I talk on the phone! I can walk around the yard doing whatever and he's fine, but if I bring the cordless phone out with me talking to someone, he crows CONSTANTLY. Everyone I talk to thinks he just constantly crows. I don't think they believe me when I tell them that he only does this when I talk outside on the phone, but it's true!

 

[kipper]

We are currently using the ignore tactic. He attacks, we ignore. No change in his jerk attitude and we've been doing this for weeks. I, too, throw treats accross way over to the far side of the yard, and he still comes at me.

I think I would feel like keeping him if he was protective of the hens. He is not. He focuses mostly on attacking the humans and ignores his roosterly duties. I think he will be rehomed soon.