Cranky rooster

[krista74]

My rooster, a one year old Buff Orpington, has never given me any trouble before.

Today though I had to lock his favourite girl in a separate cage and he was not happy.

He made a couple of quick lunges at me, and then twice flew towards me with his legs up. Luckily for me he has no spurs yet so it didn't hurt me, and he clumsily fell to the ground.

I stood my ground and yelled at him but had hubby not stepped in I suspect he would have had another go at me.

I know to a degree he is meant to protect the flock, however I am also not willing to tolerate aggressive attacks towards me and have always supported the idea of getting rid of aggressive roos.

Where is the line of acceptable behaviour?

To be honest he gave me quite the fright, as he is normally a big wuss!

Do I put this down as a one off and give him another chance?

- Krista

 

[andreanar]

Personally, I wouldn't keep any roo that came at me. Especially if you have children around. That he came at you once tells me he can't be trusted. If you don't have kids around and want to give him another chance, you can try picking him up and carrying him around, or chasing him every time he gets close to you, knocking him off the hens when he tries mating them in front of you.
Don't turn your back on him.
I sent my 2 BO cockerals to freezer camp for this same reason. Good luck

 

[uzisuzuki]

I think the line of what is unacceptable is and should be up to the individual.

My little Sebright rooster gets aggressive when his hens get stirred up or I need to collect eggs from the broody one. This doesn't bother me as I'm the only one who deals with my chickens, I don't have children, his nails and spurs stay rounded off, and he's a whopping 1-2lbs total. He's also my first chicken - he showed up shortly after I started walking again after about 2.5 months of being bedridden/wheelchair bound from a severe car accident at the end of July.

So, while a LOT of people here would encourage me to kill him, that's not going to happen because he's not reached MY line of what is unacceptable. He is not aggressive 24/7, I know what sets him off, and I deal with it.

You have to decide if your rooster has reached your line yet.

 

[RAnst4038]

First you have to understand that animals are psychic they sense intent.
They know you are female so your at a disadvantage right from the start.
Try doing what I do to keep them in line. I make a surprise visit in the middle of the night. Grab them, sniff them, growl and think “You smell good enough to eat” until they start to whimper. Then say I think I’ll fatten you up a little more. It’s called balance of terror they have to be afraid of you!

 

[krista74]

I am fortunate in that there are no kids around here that he could hurt, so that's not an issue.

Normally when we need to treat our girls we evict the rooster from the coop because he reacts in the opposite way - lots of sooking and boking and running in circles. He gets so wound up that he upsets the hens! So we chuck him out and the girls calm down and we do what we have to do. That he reacted this way is highly unusual, especially since he has never done so before.

My thoughts are that I will give him the benefit of the doubt this one time, but once I have removed his favourite girl from the cage he has no further chances. I won't be made to feel afraid to go into our coop.

Interestingly enough, we have had four broody hens in the past couple of months, and I've been picking up various hens in front of him and putting them in the same box several times a day. I've just never done it with this girl before.

- Krista

 

[aart]

Don't let him feel your fear, it will only make it worse.
How old is he?

 

[silkymom]

got to agree, they are smaller and we can be in control, i have to do the same with my heeler, we have dominance probs, he will learn their not stupid,

 

[krista74]

Don't let him feel your fear, it will only make it worse.
How old is he?

To the best of my knowledge, he is about 1 year and three or four months old. The hormones are surging! It's scorching hot here and he has been super busy mounting his hens, to the point where they now all have to wear saddles as protection. He is not rough with them by any means, he is just big and heavy, and 'drags' the feathers out of them when he is treading.

I went to the coop this morning like nothing had happened. Just went about doing my cleaning, saying the usual "Get out of my way George" and walking through him. He seems fine today. No signs of aggression at all. I did make one change though - I moved his girlfriend and her cage across the yard to where he could not see me tending to her. I had to move her anyway as she has an impacted crop and needed to see the vet today, so he is consequently much calmer now he can't see her caged up.

In fact, the whole flock is calmer today. She is not just his girlfriend but also the head hen. We call her Fire Ant, if that is any indication of her temperament! Everyone is napping and even she, in her separate cage is calm. Peace reigns! I won't be turning my back on George for a while though. I never had to even think about him before and now I'm VERY conscious of him.

- Krista

 

[KatyushaB]

When I was nine, I briefly lived with my cousin I would always go out and feed the chickens and collect the eggs. The rooster there was not happy with me, many times he had chased me around jumped up with his legs and tried to attack me. This scared me. One time I asked my dad to come with me to feed the chickens again because I was scared of the Rooster. My dad didn't even have to bring a stick and the rooster stayed between a three foot distance between us the entire time. This baffled me.

The reason he stayed away was because my dad was prepared to hurt him if he attacked. If the rooster came at him my dad was more then ready to attack him. Roosters CAN TELL whether are not your prepared to wack them on the head with a stick. If you are not prepared, even if you tell yourself you are prepared he WILL tell. Do not be afraid to let them feel pain, I mean of course do not draw blood are anything like that but they decided to attack you so they should get what's coming.

The next year when I came to visit my cousins again I was thirteen and I still wanted to feed the chickens (same rooster) I always brought around a stick. He didn't even charge at me. Even if I was afraid of him he didn't come because he knew I was gonna wack him. At one point I brought my one year old cousin in to feed the chickens with me. The rooster, being the Coward he was decided to run at my cousin. All I had to do was stand up and yell and he ran in the other direction. I then removed my cousin from the coop (of course!) and that was the end. Sometimes I also brought my dog in, so if he did decide to attack me I would scream and my dog would come running. (That coward rooster never even touched the dog ha!)

I do not believe in killing a rooster simply because it's aggressive. Of course they're are some exceptions. Take that as soon as you enter the coop the Rooster is on you 24/7. That's different and that Rooster should go in the pot. A rooster being aggressive is part of it's natural behavior and you should be prepared to deal with it. If you want a flock of chickens that is safe for children then do not get a rooster at all. Buying a rooster is a serious gamble on it's behavior because they have a big range of behaviors some roosters are sweat hearts others are killing machines. I would recommend you just do what I said above and leave your rooster be. Do not kill it simply because it attacked you twice. You got the Rooster to protect your flock and it's doing that. Roosters are not lap birds. If you really cannot deal with the aggressive behavior just give the bird away and not get a Roo again.

Anyway, best of luck! Hope this post helped!

~KatyushaB

 

[Monguire]

They know you are female so your at a disadvantage right from the start.

Apparently, you've never met my mother-in-law!