First Rooster/Curious About Rooster Behavior

[FiveFowl]

I have a five month old Polish Tolbunt cockerel. He's our first rooster and he's very interesting so I hope we can keep him, but everyone I talk to mentions that he might become mean. Is there anything we should be doing or not doing to prevent that?

Right now, he's like most of the other chickens as far as being used to people but moving just out of reach if you try to touch him. Our daughter sometimes catches and holds him awhile (she's not a little one she's off to college next year) but other than that he rarely gets picked up. I guess I'm wondering, what is everyone's experience with this breed regarding temperament? Or just in general?

 

[CoopintheWoods]

I had 5 unlucky roosters out of a 6 chick straight run of EE's. At least four of them would shuffle up to you and puff up and act like they were going to come at you. I honestly don't find that minor level of aggression unacceptable, so that was fine.

Only 1 ever escalated beyond that and actually attacked anyone with the spurs. They all fought with each other enough that I had to seperate them, but when they were free-ranging one or 2 at a time all but the 1 aggressive one were fine (if you aren't threatened by a little shuffling).

I eventually sold the aggressive one and 3 of the others. I had meant to sell all of them but couldn't catch one who was frankly semi-feral. He turned out to be a great rooster and watchdog. He was never quite calm enough to live with my hens 24/7, so he was with them when they were free-ranging (with supervision due to an abundance of hawks and eagles in my area) but slept in his own coop at night. He free-ranged all day unsupervised.

A few years later I was given another semi-feral rooster. This one also did the little rooster shuffle but never escalated more than that. Neither rooster ever needed supplemental feed outside of the winter and were plenty fat from whatever they found.

So I do have a preference for independent roosters who want nothing to do with you. I would advise to stop cuddling your rooster and just act like he isn't there. You don't want him to view you and yours as a part of his pecking order. I raised all mine with little human contact (but plenty of socializing with other chickens) and maybe I've been very lucky, but I do credit that method with 5/6 non-aggressive roosters.

I've been rambling. To conclude, don't coddle your rooster, and he'll probably turn out fine if you don't mind the rooster shuffle.

Edit: And I've never had polish roosters, but I did have some hens. It's hard to describe their temperament other than they were the absolute dumbest birds I've ever owned. None were ever aggressive or bullies though, but I think that's probably because they didn't know how to.