Alright I have some questions about my rooster.
He's probably around 8-9 months old (ive had him for ~a month)
Now my dad is afraid he could be dangerous (I have younger siblings)
He hasn't shown any aggressive towards me besides occasionally growling(?) at me when I pick up a pullet.
He also runs away from me when I approach him.
Is there a way to like tame him down?
Check out the Roovolution web site, podcasts and especially their Facebook group called Rooster Allies. They have a bunch of text and video guides about roosters and how we can interact with them there.
The Roovolution philosophy is to be a helpful ally to your rooster in his duties, not to try to replace him as flock protector. Not to be another rooster competing with him or vying for dominance every time you visit the coop. It's a different approach that takes you out of the dominance equation and builds trust instead.
So the phrase taming him is not one they use because they see it differently - it's more like understanding and working with his natural impulses - so that he feels no reason to be aggressive with you or other humans who visit, though children should not interact with him or should be totally, closely supervised. They are so small, and they themselves can be unpredictable.
Is it
@SimpleJenn that has children and successfully had them coexisting with the rooster as he came into his hormones?
Your rooster is very young and in time should settle down but he's bound to be a little wild right now because he's dealing with the crazy hormones. They say it's the rare rooster that can't settle down eventually, but every one is built a little differently. This is the time to build trust with him, for him to learn you aren't a danger or potential competition for him or his ladies.
I tried dominance with the hen Diane Ida-Biter, who seems to want to dominate like a rooster, and that turned out to not help at all. Now I'm trying the trust building / non-reaction to her provocations and it's working better. Her fear-based aggression and thing about hands near her is not improved long term by any dominance measures I've tried (holding, pinning, keeping a stick handy to ward her off, etc.). They all are seen by a chicken as aggressive responses to them and failed to stop her aggression beyond a few hours.
Other chickens (Tedi usually) can get her to knock it off with some vocal sounds and body language, and Hazel (and Popcorn when she was alive) did correct her aggressively, but that's a chicken-world thing that apparently really doesn't work when humans do it, according to the Roovolution folks, and in my limited experience.
Just yesterday I was trying to adjust some bricks on the run construction edge and Diane came over all upset again about my hands, whining at me and looking to attack and bite. I had to remove my hands and talk calmly to her, let her walk away some, then try the bricks again. She's calmed down a noticeable amount in the few months I've been doing this new Roovolution non-reactive approach. A couple of these interactions, and then Tedi helpfully came over and peeped at her and she left. I wish I knew what she said!
She’s just a stubborn redhead!
