Buff Arph. Rooster Beign Mean???

[milezone]

Hi All,

Ok our chicks are now 3 months old, we have 10 hens and 1 rooster, all Buff Orh.. We also have 1 Polish Rooster that was a freebie when we ordered (he is free to anyone who takes him).

In any case the rooster used to come up to me, sit on my leg, we petted him, no problems. The last 2 weeks he has turned quite aggressive. Grabs and holds on to other hens, and has bite my daughter once, and me twice. is this normal, what can we do?

I've heard about grabbing them and holding them, but the sucker will bite if we try to grab him, so we are a bit leary of grabbing him? Do you all wear gloves when you do this?

Russ

 

[bobbi-j]

Eat the buff orp, keep the polish (unless he gets mean, too - then eat them both)! You don't want a rooster around that attacks your child. It's bad enough when they attack an adult, but could be downright dangerous for a child. Think about it - they're right at eye-level! You also don't want those aggressive genes passed down if you're keeping the rooster for breeding. Keep looking - there are nice roosters out there. (I know, because I happen to have one) I honestly can't say if aggression is a common trait in BO roosters or not, or if you just happened to get one.

 

[milezone]

Well he doesnt really come at you as more when you reach to pet or get to close he doesit. Any other advice, do you all wear gloves when you pick them up?

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Since your Buff Orpington roo is still young, this behavior can be cured. You'll have to be consistent with his "training" or he will continue to be a little aggressive.

The pecking and grabbing onto the hens issue is just because his hormones are starting to flow and he's trying to figure out how to mate with them. Most roosters will calm down with the hens, especially if a big dominant hen pecks him back.

With humans, if he acts like he want to peck you (look for head down, feathers ruffled), pick him up and carry him around a little while. You have to do this every time he shows that type of undesirable behavior. What you are describing is not too bad of aggression, but could turn into worse aggression if he learns that pecking and attacking gets a reaction out of you and makes you go away.

 

[SycolinWoodsChickens]

That is pretty young to start going after you. He could just be testing his boundries and getting all hormonal. Or he might be morphing into a complete jerk of a roo and isn't worth keeping. Only time will tell. My vote is that he is starting to get raging teenage hormones and can't really control himself right now. You can try to re-train him about biting you but with a small child around having a roo at all is a risk that I personally wouldn't take. Just my opinion.

BTW, I haven't had much luck handling roos as pets. The last one we handled a lot when they were young that with attacked everyone that came on our property until he ended up in the crock pot. Now we have 5 cockerals and we are NOT handling them at all. We are hoping one or two will turn out decent and we will keep them with our flock. If they turn on us we will not wait as long as we did last year to cull them. It's not worth the risk to everyone else who visits us.

 

[MareeZoCool]

I locked my roo up in solitary confinement for one week starting the first minute he tried to show aggression towards me. I put him in a 2'x3'x4' wire dog crate.
He took his punishment well, and hasn't tried anymore stoopidt moves!

 

[chickensbythesea]

He's still young, and fairly small. Green is right, you gotta put him in his place now if your desire's to keep him. He's learning his place in the pecking order, and you want to be on top.

If you're worried about him biting the kids, do it yourself, but carry that bad larry around as long as you possibly can. If he bites/squabbles, either finger-peck his head right back, or invert him for (only) a second or two. Don't hurt him, but remind him that you're bigger and bossier. Wear gloves if it makes you feel more secure, but especially given his age, I wouldn't be worried, personally. Once he's less aggressive during the initial pick-up, start letting the kids either pay lots of attention while you're "pecking" and establishing dominance, or let the kids hold him and do it.

I wouldn't call it "attacking you" either, he's just trying to figure out what he can get away with. It will escalate into actual attacks if you act fearful and "weak", but he doesn't know better yet.

If you can get him to see you as a competition, you can get him to see you as a boss. Don't give up yet.