Buff Ameraucana - roo or no?

[Lucy4]

If this is a rooster (and I believe it is), please quit treating it as a pet and putting it in your child's lap. Hens are great pets, roosters are intact male livestock and need to be treated with respect, not as pets. As stated, roosters that are used to a lot of contact with humans lose respect for them and are well known to get massively aggressive when they reach sexual maturity. If you're not prepared to treat the rooster as a rooster and not a pet, please rehome it so your child(ren) don't get hurt.

The chicken has not been on my child's lap since I started this discussion. I didn't know the gender, obviously -- that's why I'm here. And I greatly appreciate so many providing info and opinions. The lecture I'll skip though.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

I agree with orpielover, but I dont want to get into an arugument. I understand why people say that you shouldnt raise them as a pet, but I dont think people should force their opinions on other people.

 

[donrae]

Sorry, wasn't meant to be a lecture, was meant to be educational/informative. I've just seen way too many folks here that start with a pet rooster and end up with a mean bird that flogs. Best of luck to you.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Sorry, wasn't meant to be a lecture, was meant to be educational/informative. I've just seen way too many folks here that start with a pet rooster and end up with a mean bird that flogs. Best of luck to you.

I'm with donrae on this one--if you search, you'll find hundreds of posts here on BYC from people who are horrified when their lap pet cockerel hit sexual maturity and suddenly started attacking them.

Chickens have their own sets of behaviors that are very different from humans. The chicken with the highest perch is the alpha, so putting a chicken on your shoulder is telling them that they are the boss of you. The dominant rooster is groomed by his hens, so lots of petting is also telling your rooster that he is the boss of you. Then, when you do something he doesn't like or he decides you're getting uppity, he tries to put you in your place by pecking or attacking--usually after lots of other behaviors that show his intentions-- but often humans miss these signals until he escalates to attack.

I have a friend with scars on his legs and next to his eye from a rooster attack when he was five (he's darn lucky not to have lost his sight in that eye). Besides the physical scars, there are some mental scars: he HATES chickens. In fact, I know lots of people who had chickens when they were young, and any of them that had an aggressive rooster can't stand chickens to this day. I am also a mother to two young children, and I want my kids to enjoy having animals on the farm and to carry their enjoyment of caring for animals through to adulthood. Besides the safety issue, this is another strong reason for me to make sure that our roosters stay behind a fence and have no human-aggressive tendencies.

I understand that there are lots of pet roosters in the world, and I totally believe the folks here who've had success with treating roosters like pets. All animals are individuals. But when there are kids involved, I believe it's far better to be safe than sorry and either keep the rooster behind a fence or cull the rooster instead of trying to make a pet of it. And "cull" is always taken as "kill," but that's simply not true. One of the roosters in my pasture right now is a cull rooster from a color project a BYCer was doing. My cull roosters are often (if not always) placed in homes instead of killed. A lovely BO like this one should be able to find a home.

 

[Lucy4]

This chicken already has a new home, if the majority of folks here are correct and it's a rooster. My friend who gave it to me ready said she'd take it (and keep it!) Since there are a couple dissenters on gender, I figure I'll give it another week and then send back. I do understand the warnings about roosters. We can't have them here in any case (my variance is just for hens).

 

[Kev]

The more you spend time and interact with the rooster, the friendly your rooster will be. Orpington's are usually overall friendly, so interacting more with them will make them really friendly!

Not quite true, not quite wrong statement.

Aggression is genetic. If the stock is already genetically inclined to be non-aggressive then taming them will result in mostly very tame roosters. Low chance of aggression.

Most lines/populations/whatever will have about more or less moderate range of aggressive genetics. Basically, raise the very same individual rooster in several different situations and the rooster can grow up to respond and behave differently. Raise this one as tame pet, chances can be moderate to high of it becoming aggressive. Raise it like a regular backyard chicken, not like a pet or raised in a naturalistic setting- raised by a mother hen, with siblings and others, the chances of aggression may be low-moderate.

A few lines are genetically inclined to be very aggressive. Some of them are a by product of being selected hard for a different trait with no selection based on "personality". Example can be a egg production line, either the genes for aggression were present in the founding stock and so it got carried along and 'intensified' by the founder's effect. OR perhaps in a line high production has relation to aggression in rooster and so higher production is also a selection for higher roo aggression. With birds from those sort of lines, it is a case of almost no matter how they are raised, there is a high chance of the rooster being aggressive but perhaps much worse if raised tame- no fear of humans/mistaken imprinting resulting in directing roo behavior towards people as if they were chickens.

The genetic cause can be seen in two extreme examples: pit fighting stock. They are bred to have the highest desire to kill any rooster within reach and not back off even if at near death. Yet those roosters can be non aggressive towards people and handleable even by small kids. Roosters that attack people often are not desired and have a special name in those circles- 'man fighters'. Another extreme example is a line with roosters so aggressive they breed then proceed to deliberately kill a hen introduced to their cage. Those simply can not control themselves not to harm a hen.

Anyways aggression being genetic and over a broad spectrum is likely why nobody can quite agree on how to raise roosters. Because there really is no 'one right way'...

 

[CatsCrazyCoop]

Cockerel, but not an Ameraucana. That's an Easter Egger.

You know what is (NOT) funny... I got these birds from a REPUTABLE breeder down in Michigan who is very involved in the ABC. I am VERY disappointed as the Ameraucana Buffs were the ONE color/breed I wanted to focus on next year but I am guessing the Chanteclers got mixed in the pen? Yes, I am the one with the Lavenders and the Buffs. The Buffs have sad excuses for muffs and beards.

As for a handled cockerel becoming violent at maturity - everything is relative. I had a hand raised Rooster, who when coming into maturity was a friendly Rooster to his family - but yes, he was violent and aggressive to predators. I have also had cockerels NOT handled at all, who would spur their owners, attack other roosters AND hens and didn't get to live very far past their maturity because they ended up in the soup pot.

ALL of my birds are hand raised and friendly - beyond sexual maturity and so far (knock on wood) I have been very fortunate and they have all be very nice birds. SOME skittish - but none violent. I think more than just wether or not the bird is hand raised/lap bird play into the personality - and I believe a lot of it is genetic predisposition. But attacking someone for teaching their children compassion toward animals seems unnecessary and unacceptable.

Anyway - I will give my remaining buffs a few more weeks before I document their poor quality and hopefully at least get a refund of my money. How upsetting when someone so reputable sends a bunch of EEs... :-(