Agressive Rooster

[gavinandallison]

DW and I have a Barred Rock Rooster who we raised from 3 days old. He has been handled daily like the 4 hens but has started getting agressive. When I go to leave the run, he will chase after me. If I stop and turn to face him he puff's himself up and will peck hard and also attempt to fight with me with his feet. An ideas what to do? I thought about kneeling down and when he lunges at me pushing him away hard enough to knock his ego so that he will hopefully realizes he is not #1. What do you all think?

 

[easttxchick]

How old is he? He is trying to tell you he's the boss-you have to make him realize he's not, YOU are.
I hate to admit this, but the way I handle this(after being flogged on more than one occasion) is the first time they drop a wing on me, they get a back-hand. Not hard enough to REALLY hurt them, but hard enough that they don't want another piece of me.
It's worked with Sumatras who are notoriously gamey.
DO NOT back down from him no matter what-if so, you lose, game over and he'll never stop coming after you. Make him walk away first.
Good luck!

 

[chickenlady08]

My Delaware Jack started to get pretty ugly when he was losing his alpha roo status. My son was afraid cause he would chase him and my son would run. (which is the wrong thing to do and he didn't care) Well what I did was jump to my knees and grab him and hold him for quite awhile. I never timed myself, just usually held him until my arm got tired of holding him like a football. It took a long time but he has finally settled down and become managable. He unfortunately has become kind of wimpy now and one of his sons beat him up around a month ago. He is now seperated away from the flock with a friend. His son is also seperated. I still have 2 roosters in with my girls. JJ is RIR/Red Star that hatched in August of 2009. He is from a RIR rooster Jake (that we don't have any longer cause he was very mean and not able to break) and a Red Star hen. Then I have Dexter ( he is Jack's son that was born June 2010). JJ has been a wonderful boy. He is nice to his girls and to us. (big plus) Dexter is still young so not sure what he may do. But he has a BR mom and DE dad, so he is a big black boy with white lacing like a DE would be but reversing the white and black.

I think you need to get down on his level and let him know that YOU are the boss because if you don't he will not stop coming after you or anyone else that comes out there. They can really do some serious damage to you. If you really love him like I did my Jack then he is worth working with to break.

BR seem to be pretty mellow ( or at least the ones I have been around have been).

I wish you luck and patience in this endeavor. Patience is very important because you have to have loads of it.

 

[Opa]

Use the side of your foot and launch him across the yard. A couple of times of doing that will often break there agression towards you. If not a trip to freezer camp always will.

 

[apmomma]

I feel your pain!! Our Plymouth Barred Rock was a favorite, raised from just a few days old by us, handled frequently..then one day he jumped at my 4yr old and broke skin under her arm (as she covered her face in fear)..then on another occasion, in the yard, charged after and knocked my 2yr old down from behind.

Now we suspect he killed two of our hens! I did read somewhere that the Plymouth barred rocks can be one of the 'meaner' roosters(although the hens are very gentle). I've also read on these forums that you can work with your rooster and over time they will learn they are not boss. BUT, if you have young children, like I do, it may be best to go the freezer camp route..which is what we are planning.
Good luck and/or sorry

 

[mulewagon]

No, don't kneel down! You don't want to be at eye level with him! He moves faster and has more sharp stuff than you do...

My experience has been that kicking just made them more aqgressive. I taught mine to back down by walking straight at them, and waggling bags or sticks in their faces until they backed up. I made them all stay 3 feet away from me. Just walk briskly at him like he's not there, and make him give way.

Also, note the preliminaries to aggression. That will be a funny sideways walk at you, or walking a little circle around you. That's an assertion of dominance. Back him up any time he starts that (or when he does it to a hen near you), so that you can be established as dominant before it gets to a fight.

I had 26 roosters until a few weeks ago (now most of the roosters are dinner). The roosters weren't afraid of people, and would come up close but bite hard when they were petted. So I started training them - it was pretty cool to walk down to the coop with roosters parting before me like the Red Sea

I think it's important to start training them as soon as you can tell they're roosters, before they really attack anybody.

 

[Ed62]

Quote:
That's exactly what I did when ours decided to come at me. Then I chased him around the chicken yard a few times. That has been about 2 months ago, and he never tried it again. It might not work for everybody, but it sure did for me.

Ed

 

[michickenwrangler]

Quote:
Good advice. Kicking them just indicates you want to fight.

Some people on here have advised picking them up and holding them until they stop struggling which has worked for my neighbor and her aggressive rooster. So far, we haven't had problems with our roosters but DH said that if they ever attack anyone, they're dead. He won't tolerate an aggressive roo. If you have children or if the aggression persists, you may have to do away with the rooster.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
This is exactly what I've done with many in the past and it usually works.

For those who find this to be too violent though get you a stout broom. When he comes at you whack him with the bushy end hard enough to knock him over. You're not trying to injure him, but knock him over. When he gets up again knock him over again. Keep doing it until he runs from you. Every time he comes at you in an aggressive manner take the broom to him again. Every time. Make him get your of your way, do not ever get out of his.

The rooster is attempting to establish dominance and you need to convince him that YOU are the boss bird in the flock and that he'd better get out of your way when ever you are around.

Once in a while you'll get a bird that just won't be convinced. Eat those.

 

[Mervin]

A.T. Hagan :

Quote:
This is exactly what I've done with many in the past and it usually works.

For those who find this to be too violent though get you a stout broom. When he comes at you whack him with the bushy end hard enough to knock him over. You're not trying to injure him, but knock him over. When he gets up again knock him over again. Keep doing it until he runs from you. Every time he comes at you in an aggressive manner take the broom to him again. Every time. Make him get your of your way, do not ever get out of his.

The rooster is attempting to establish dominance and you need to convince him that YOU are the boss bird in the flock and that he'd better get out of your way when ever you are around.

Once in a while you'll get a bird that just won't be convinced. Eat those.

Couldn't have said it better.

I had two Welsummers this summer that couldn't be convinced, well one Wellie and one Wellie mutt. The first would take his whooping and be okay for a week or two. He was alpha, but he was a mutt and not my choice for a breeder. So, he became paprikash. Once the other one got to alpha, he was miserable. He was much more difficult to back down, he would stand his ground a lot more (I never could figure out why he couldn't win alpha). A whooping only slowed him down until the next day. Rooster reform school just wasn't working, so he became chicken and dumplings.​