"Bad" Tame-Only Behaviours?

[Alia]

I just saw it mentioned in another thread about roosters being more likely to attack people if they're raised as toys, not chickens. I've seen this as true, but I've never really noticed anything horrible from extra-tame hens.

The worst I've ever experienced is that they develop the notion that they should steal my food or pick at me as if I was another bird. I remember once having a scab on my leg that I had to cover with a band-aid to prevent the chickens from eating the scab. One of them ate the band-aid, which made me feel pretty awful even though she didn't die. It happened so fast there wasn't much I could do. One of them ripped it off, and another one came right up with that deeply-ingrained notion that, "Oh, if it's in somebody's mouth, it must be food! And I want it much more than the stuff I already know is food!"

Have you seen anything negative happen to your chickens from being extremely tame? I've heard tameness can lower egg production, decrease fertility, and even prevent broodiness. I've never seen any of this but I never had a truly broody hen.

 

[Serenity Sav]

I have a rooster I raised with the utmost of love, attention, and care. I also have a rooster that was all but ignored, as far as human interaction is concerned. Both roos underwent their testosterone stages and went from cockerels to true roosters.
Here is what I have observed between the two boys:

* The boy I paid attention to (hereby called Grig) has been very, very chivalrous and gentlemanly to the girls. When given treats, Grig brings them to the girls.

* the boy that wasn't given 1-on-1 human-chicken attention (hereby called Anu) quite rarely shares treats with the girls; he will have his fill first. Until then, he'll take the treats and run away from the girls.

*When Grig wants to mate, he does his charming rooster dance and gently tries to mount the female. If she's uninterested, and makes clucks of protest, Grig dismounts and lets her be.

* When a girl is getting ready to lay, Grig helps the girls find a suitable spot, and will spend innumerable hours of a day offering suggestions to the girl in question. Anu has never done that; the closest he's done is walk on a girl when she's trying to lay.

* When Anu wants to mate, he runs and nearly attacks the females, removing many feathers and scaring/hurting the girls in the process.

* When Grig sees a hawk in the sky, he sqwaks and alerts the girls; they take cover, he stands his ground, ready to defend.

* When Anu sees a hawk, he hides immediately.

* Grig lets me hold/pet him calmly, and sleeps alongside often. Some of the "spunkier" girls will challenge Grig to a fight; Grig will never fight them back, and instead run away.

*Anu flogs all girls and humans on a regular basis. Grig does not, ever.

I could list more, but will stop. I will say that holding a rooster and walking around with him under your arm for varied amounts of times has helped implement the "me human, me the boss" rule to all of them.

 

[An Sun]

None of my current personal experience even remotely suggests that any degree of tameness has a detrimental effect on a chicken, male or female. Quite the opposite in fact, the more a rooster or hen identifies with you on a personal level, especially as chicks, the less aggressive they seem to be as Adults.

 

[Alia]

What Serenity said is incredibly interesting. Could the chicken have somehow become more human? Or possibly, his more social innate behaviours are simply coming out, because he was simply better socialised.

 

[GD91]

My tame rooster is wrapped up in a blanket having a cuddle right now.

His evil half - twin went in the pot 2 months ago. He was not handled & we thought he was a pullet. All my roos were handled except him & all my roos were lovely except him.

See my previous thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/850282/one-of-my-roos-protected-me

The differences are as described by the OP, my unhandled roo was an evil piece of work that wanted me dead & didn't see any benefits to keeping me around. Also he would bully the other birds to the point where the pullets & other cockerel were so cowed they no longer behaved normally.

My tame roo on the other hand, is the sweetest thing & lives indoors at night (we have close neighbors & he gets frostbite otherwise) & has been trained. See my other thread, nobodys posted yet, but you can see what my situation was:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/866855/garden-roosters-in-suburbia-rip

I think it just depends on the roo, my roo see's me as ""mum" & "leader".

He is a full grown rooster, not a cockerel btw.

 

[chicksurreal]

This is an interesting thread.

We are down to one cockerel right now (two having been killed by a bobcat early on) with 13 pullets. They are all the same age, 7 1/2 months.

We have treated them all the same, holding them, giving treats, spending many, many hours with them and giving them all the most love and attention that we can, they are pets to us with the added bonus of eggs from the girls. Our cockerel is really great. At this point, he treats the girls like gold, is always on alert and ready to defend them. He gets a little testy with strangers, he doesn't like to have anyone he doesn't know around the pullets, whether it be a stray dog, cat, bird or human.

He always gives them the treats that I hand feed him. He calls them over to any food he finds while they free range. he helps them find nesting spots and stays with them as much as possible while they are laying, he is also very gentlemanly when mating. He will come up to them and if they squat for him, he will do his thing, if they don't he walks away. He rounds them up in the evening and goes to get anyone who strays too far away during the day. His job looks exhausting, I do not envy him. But, I do love him, he's really great to have around.