Friendliest Roos?

[Twiggers96]

I am blessed with a HUGE EE Blue-Wheaten Roo.
He is 6mnths old and I have never seen such a tall fellow.

Thing is, I am scared to death of him. EE/Americauna's do not have the friendliest of faces.
To me, they look rather hawk-like. They look like they mean business.

Big Daddy's hormones have kicked in & he does a fine job of watching the ladies but do to my fear of him
I think it's best to get rid of him. I hate to do it. They free range all day and they need a good, strong roo to look after them.
(I can't tell if he is running after me because he wants the treats I am about to lay out of if he is trying to attack. )

I stomped towards him once & he DID try to attack me. I ran and he ran right after me. The neighbors had a great time watching "Fat Lady Pasture Antics" that day.
Ever since then, he's known he's the Alpha over me.
I was badly attacked as a child by a roo and don't want to relive that. I am also very stronly attached to my eye sight!

Is there a breed of rooster that is known to be friendly?

Any suggestions on my roo?

 

[bantyshanty]

It sounds like you'd do well to get rid of him right away, so you can feel at ease around you flock. I'm not a rooster pro, as I've only had about a dozen roos, but my experience with Ameraucana cockerels of the one batch I raised is that they've all become aggressive with me & the hens. They got rehomed before they could attack me.Would a bantam breed such as a d'Uccle do all right to protect your flock? They're friendly & pretty & talkative & extremely unlikely to hurt you permanently. For large fowl, there's nothing more mellow & sweet --and HUGE-- than a cochin roo, as far as I've experienced. They're round & lovely & generally friendly, too.
My bantam cochin roo used to go into the nest boxes each morning and chatter at the pullets to come in & start using them before the laid for the day. He was an egg coach!

FYI my Ameraucana hens are not very safe either, in that they'll try to tear off my fingers to get at treats, and they sit on the birds closest to me to get treats before them, as well.


Good luck!

 

[pgpoultry]

I think any aggressive roo should be dispatched as they can be dangerous.

If you want big and calm Brahmas are a great choice too. Never had an aggressive one.

 

[GoodLuckCharlie!]

Yeah, I have to agree, any chicken that's aggressive and doesn't respond to all the calming techniques should be dinner...which will be our EE rooster tomorrow...he attacked everything but the trees this week and the last straw was when my daughter wanted to go upstairs to feed the ladies a graham cracker and he repeatedly attacked her until I could get to her...1 chunk of meat out of her leg and 4 pecks later-he's fast. May as well have been a bear attack in her eyes, darnit...luckily my friend showed me how to humanely process chickens...I will be doing that for tomorrow, grandparents day. Menu-chicken salad and cucumber sandwiches

Although I don't know how I'll do this without my daughter finding out

Guess she'll be going for yogurt ice cream with her dad sometime in the afternoon

 

[Help_battery_hens]

it is a roo like the one you have that will do the best job at protecting his flock. you could try wearing some thick gardening gloves and sleeves and if he does try and attack you pin him down... do this every time and see how it works. like you said he could just be running to you for treats. always stand your ground i know they can be intimidating but its unfair to condemn him to death just for doing his job and scaring you

 

[Ole rooster]

This is strange indeed. You're scared of a rooster because of his looks but he's done nothing to warrant such a feeling. I wouldn't have a chance. I don't have the friendliest of faces but I'm so loveable. I would be proud to have a rooster that had that attitude, the one to protect the hens. You should too. Condemned for his looks? Poor rooster.

 

[GoodLuckCharlie!]

Quote:
I agree about trying the good techniques first-I tried yours for a week straight, and then this week it seems it made him even more aggressive=either that or he's just an aggressive guy who can't handle his surging hormones. My daughter and husband wants to re home him. If the new San Diego ordinance Sept. 13th goes through as planned, there will be A LOT of roosters euthanized in the coming months and we already looked on different sights to advertize him for free even, but there are already a lot of rooster on those sights, and if we advertise him as being aggressive, its an easy answer who will answer our ad-someone that would use him in fighting.

I told my family in the first place that we would be raising chickens for eggs and meat and preserving a rare breed at some point. They are all very well loved and Thor, our rooster, actually was a favorite until the past month when his 'kindness' meter went down and aggression 'meter' went up. He attacks everyone including the pulllets-not in a mating way either.

 

[Echolalia]

Quote:
I wouldn't get rid of him. It doesn't sound like he's all that aggressive, quite frankly; especially compared to GoodLuckCharlie!'s roo - he sounds like a total B@$T@RD. I agree with the poster above who suggested the calming techniques to re-establish your dominance over him.

 

[GoodLuckCharlie!]

And actually I just wanted to add that WhiteMountainsRanch ( I hope she doesn't mind I referred to her) raises purebreed Ameracaunas, and when I went to her ranch to say hi to the chickens (and humans

I couldn't believe how 'HUGE AND HAWK-LIKE' they looked. I mean, they are enormous! Mine are slow growers and younger so that was my first taste of larger birds. It was intimidating at first, I'll admit, but they were very VERY sweet and well taken care of and easy to handle. They all equally ran towards us for scratch food and it helped a lot to see their behavior. Growing up with mine from eggs on, I haven't hit that part yet of seeing them as very large, so maybe? it would be helpful if someone you know is with you? If you've never been bit and the rooster doesn't act aggressive I wouldn't think its aggressive, just intimidating

There are a lot of good techniques on BYC that may calm your fears too. We tried all the ones I could read about, it just isn't working unfortunately for Thor. I'm on our last technique, which is a large triangle run we made of pvc piping and metal fencing, with one end that opens and closes by bending the metal. I have Thor in there with food and treats and we come by and say hi nicely through the fencing. I don't think it'll work but we're trying.

Good luck though

 

[pgpoultry]

Sorry I mis-read the post Twiggers96, assuming him to be aggressive as well. No, he can't help his looks......if he is Ok with you.....let him look like whatever.

I own this.....and he is a real sweetie....so he'll never be anybody's dinner.