Barred Rock the meanest breed?

[Wolfwoman]

Quote:

 

[speckledhen]

BRs are my favorite breed, both roosters and hens. I have two BR roosters and have had others. Barred Rocks are usually the most friendly, intelligent, calm birds. Roosters are just roosters--no matter the breed, they are individuals and may or may not be aggressive. Most of the BR roosters I've had have been extremely good boys.

 

[goatstafson]

We had 6 BR's for a while, they were very difficult birds. They were decent as long as there world was perfectly managed, but if we were late feeding them by even an hour they would get really loud and would fly up at us. On of the hens was far worse than the rest, but all of them would follow her lead.

I think that some "families" of BR's are just more or less aggressive than others, but my opinion is that BR's seem to have a higher likelihood of being difficult birds than some other breeds.

 

[PineappleMama]

I don't know about mean, but the two BR/EE chicks in our shower are uber skittish compared to our GSLs... of course, if I had a huge hairy giant looming over me I'd prolly be skittish too. *shrug* Nothing mean about them, they just haul to the corner if anyone enters the room... but that's just our two, and they're mixed too so I donno if that's the EE or the BR talking.

 

[3chimama]

I have Barred Plymouth Rocks and they are sooo sweet!! They follow me around, get on my shoulders and try to groom my hair and sing to me.
Quote:

 

[Big dreams]

I have 6 BR hens, they are all sweet, not super friendly (unless I have treats) but never a problem. Years ago I had about 10 of them and they were all fine as well. As far as roosters when the kids were small my roosters ended up in the pot but now I have one with my hens, he isn't bad, but he isn't that nice either however what I so is each time he thinks about jumping me I wait and then grab him up as he jumps at me and I carry him around, then for a week or two he is well behaved. I think roosters are just roosters but if I am packing him around he can't get me

 

[speckledhen]

Hatcheries sometimes propagate a bad strain in a certain breed. Could happen with Rocks. I hated Delawares after having some evil vampire chicks I hatched from hatchery stock parentage. HATED them. Delawares have an awesome rep as a calm, uber-friendly bird, but not those! A breeder talked me into hatching some from her quality flock, said they'd be different and they really were.

So, although Barred Rocks are generally the absolute best friendly, curious, calm birds, there can be exceptions. And trust me, they are exceptions, not the rule or I wouldn't be of the opinion that they are the best, all-round breed on the planet.

 

[schellie69]

I have 2 BR and I love mine they are so cool they do have their own personality but that is what makes them special. When we move to our farm I will have more BR but will get them from a breeder instead of hatchery. I think there is a bad apple in any breed but for the most part so far I have had no problems with my girls. Rooster's are another story either they are sweet or mean I think it is just he way some hatcheries bread their birds. To the OP, you might be right if someone was messing with the rooster or the hens he might have been just in over drive to protect the hens. I know when we have to catch the girls for thier check ups our rooster gets really upset, so I would just wait and see how he does now that it seems he has calmed down.

 

[chickenma]

If there are kids involved, there is only one right thing to do. cull it or re home.
The rooster accident can happen in 1 second and it will traumatize or damaged your kid really bad.
in our family is one rule. if the animal is mean to anyone in the family it has to go.
And all that were mean we got rid of right away.
And they were, silkie rooster, RIR, EE, Black austrolorp, It is not the breed, it is the individual birds itself that turn out to be mean.
And we have all kind of breeds of rooster that were good too but still had to go because we had to many.

 

[bakerjw]

Still new with chickens and I don't personally have any BRs but as a previous post pointed out you can get an aggressive strain in a line from different hatcheries. So for me I'd replace any roo with aggressive tendencies. You just don't need them in your stock.