Barred Rock Roo - can I tame him?

[DuaneC]

I've got a Barred Rock Roo that is now about 17-18 weeks old. His name is "Henry" because he came from a batch of "guaranteed pullets" that we bought. He's really pretty, so we'd like to keep him. We have no other roo's and have a hen flock that will settle down around 20 once we get rid of a few.

I've got kids that are 10 and 7. I'm concerned that Henry may turn mean, so I try to pick him up and pet him each day and get the girls to do the same. He hasn't grown into his "roosterness" yet and a couple of the hens chase him from time to time, but I'm sure that will change as he grows.

Will I be able to tame him? Any tips?

 

[Swissmiss989]

As babys I handled all of my roos and hens and I have not turned out with a mean one yet. I would keep up the handling and start trying to hand feed also. Also when he gets older make sure you or the kids dont get intimidated by him if he gets an attitude. That gives way to bad behavior and most animals take advantage of this. Good Luck!

 

[speckledhen]

You cannot really change his character. Handling him too much as a young cockerel will only make his true nature show itself sooner when the hormones begin raging and he's mating his girls. He thinks of you more as an equal than if you just walked around him and gave him his space. Babying a rooster who already has it in his makeup to be human-aggressive only makes it worse or makes it show itself sooner. It won't change who he will become. Temperament is largely heritable.

 

[oshun55555]

I agree one hundred percent speckledhen, I have 13 roosters and one of them is the top man, he got that way by scaring the crap out of all the other roosters, and that rooster is scared of me, and thats how i want it to be, same with the head hen, everybody else is scared of her, shes not scared of me though. Thats nature. always know where your rooster is when you go in the yard, walk right through him ... never around him, thats how the head rooster does, you be the head rooster and let the chickens teach you how to control them and that is to make sure they know your the head honcho. I know there are alot of folks who like to cuddle the roosters and thats fine as long as he knows his place.

 

[Beckycs]

Three years ago we had a mean RIR roo. I swore off roosters for a long while except for our very docile Buff Orpington, who has become a real love. He is almost too docile though and I need a protector for the girls, because we have a hawk who keeps attempting to kill them. So, this year, we have acquired a Blue Andalusian roo quite by accident.

He is a bit hyper but also beautiful and very respectful, at this point. However, he is only 14 weeks old right now. He has already challenged the hawk, which impressed me to no end.

I have been taking notes on all the ways that people deal with their roosters in the hope that we can avoid him ever becoming mean. One of the things that I have learned is that we humans need to establish ourselves as the leader with them, so they don't feel compelled to challenge us, so we have avoided babying him, but we never let him push us around either. It seems to be working so far, but as I said, he is still young, so I guess time will tell if I we are approaching him correctly or not.