Breaking an aggressive cockerel / rooster

[JeffandLori]

I have a cockerel that is about six months old. He is a Black Jersey Giant and absolutely beautiful. We actually enjoy having him around more than we thought we would.

Well, one day I was carrying the water feeder out and he attacked me around the legs. At which point I dropped the water and gave him a couple of swift boots out of anger.

Then a couple weeks later as I was moving the poultry netting fence (I was out the outside), I heard something and looked up and he put the brakes on about 3' from the fence. I definitely got the impression he was making a run at it, but I wasn't sure.

Today as I was feeding/watering them he just seemed "odd" and I didn't trust him. Sure enough, as soon as I hung up the waterer and was walking out, he came at me from behind full force and put a minor scratch about six inches long on the outside of my knee. A longer game of soccer ensued.

Why I don't want to get rid of him: Twice I have heard him "growling" and then crowing and ushering everyone into the coop/run and herding them under the coop portion. Sure enough, there was a hawk flying over. Picture of the set up. Most of it is under the shade of that tree.

The "run" area of the coop/run has two doors. A full size "people" door facing the photo and a smaller 2' x 2' door on the opposite side so no one gets trapped. Both are open all day and closed all night.

I have about 48 hours to make a decision as I have 14 meat birds to process Saturday and I'd rather not haul everything back out in a few weeks if this isn't something he'll outgrow/can be broken of.

Thanks in advance.

 

[AprilWC]

I have Jersey Giants as well. He barely has any spurs now, but in a few months he's going to be a massive bird with big spurs and if he continues to get aggressive he could hurt you or someone else. I personally don't keep anything aggressive, especially in Giants. He'd be on my cull list. As a comparison, I was picking up hens the other day to put breeding saddles on them. One hen started making a ruckus. One of my Jersey Giant roosters chest bumped me in the leg because he thought I was hurting his girl. He used no spurs, just gave a warning I don't like what you're doing. Your rooster is hurting you, he needs to go IMO. Too many good roosters out there to let a mean one stay.

 

[-Chanticleer-]

Beautiful cockerel. I’d eat him. Had the same thing happen with a great cockerel for my Pullets but bad for humans. He ended up biting my daughter so hard it drew blood. She is four and knows how to gently pick them up. She handled him the most because she loved his wattles. As he got older he got more human aggressive. My daughter reached out to pick him up one day and he bit her. The only reason I didn’t cull it is because she asked me not to, he was her chunky one. Gave him away with a warning to the new owner.

 

[JeffandLori]

Thanks, all. It doesn't look promising for him.

What about the whole "squirt gun" thing? I don't particularly like the idea of having to "watch my back" when I go into the pen.

Sounds like I'll be picking up the feed today at noon unless anyone has any other suggestions.

 

[Nashv755]

I'll tell you I haven't had a single aggressive rooster out of multiple breeds. One thing I do as soon as they start coming of age when they start trying to mount the hens is I punt them just hard enough to knock them off the hen. The other is if they are in the way of where I'm heading, I walk like I'll step on them if they don't move.

The reason if you look at flocks with multiple roosters. The flock leader does the exact same thing and will not allow the lower roosters mount infront of him. If he does allow it the lower rooster will see the flock leader as unfit and keep doing it building confidence until he challenges the flock leader for the top spot. Raising chickens you are part of the flock like it or not. It's not being mean you're just speaking chicken and letting them know what you'll accept.

I still treat them like any other member of the flock outside of the mounting behavior. I even side toss treats to my roosters when the hens aren't looking and pretend I didn't see it and they tidbit to the ladies and use those brownie points when I'm not around

 

[User105877]

Most people on here aren't going to like hearing this, but next time he tries to flog you don't need to hold anything back and knock the tar out of him. When he runs chase after him and scare the crap out of him. Whip up on him just like any other rooster would. After a couple go rounds, He'll either learn who the boss is or he's gone

 

[JeffandLori]

Well, due to some other events, I was unable to get the feed picked up on Friday. Earliest I could have done it would have been about 5:00 PM and that seemed to be cutting it close, so "Roger" lives on.

He seems to be more subdued today. That could have to do with there's no other roosters for him to "talk to" near by given all of the meat birds are in ice chests. Their tractor was right next to the run.

And not to anthropomorphize a chicken, but...he had full view of all the proceedings yesterday. lol

I did pick him up out of the coop today. He did NOT like that at all and fought pretty hard to make that not happen, but once I got him out and under my arm, he was fine. We walked around a bit, I took him out to the garden, etc. and then took him back to the fence and held him down and grabbed his head and pushed it down and held him like that for about 30 seconds, then dropped him over the fence. We'll see how he does.