Hello! I am new to chickens and hoping for some opinions - I inherited a very sweet blue australorp rooster who is about a year old and just want to confirm his behaviour is good. I had him on his own for about a month and he was always sweet now I have four hens for him who he takes really good care of. He has never pecked at me, will eat from my hand and I can hold him with no issue though he doesn’t love being picked up. The most he will do in terms of aggression is puff up his feathers and do a little wing flap now and then, not sure if it’s directed at me. He follows me around with his hens and they all dust bathe and sleep right beside me wherever I am in the yard and I can touch the hens without issue. All the hens eat from my hands as well. Kyle the rooster makes little purring cute sounds but doesn’t crow at me. I let them free range while I watch and they always stay by me. The past two days while they were free ranging I was sitting on the ground with them and Kyle looked at me dead on, he didn’t do anything but I don’t know if that is a threat? Today he jumped up on my lap and looked at me again and I just stared back and spoke to him and then he turned around and looked around for a bit and got off. When he was on my lap the other hens started gathering around and wanting to jump up too. Is this him being nice or is he inching his way towards aggression? I don’t have anything to cause me to think He would do anything but it feels intense having him look at me with my face exposed about a foot away. Thanks!
Friendly rooster always friendly?
- Thread starter Oldpony
- Start date
Florida Bullfrog
Crowing
Its hard to know. With you being new to chickens its difficult to interpret his behavior through your observations. What you perceive as being him getting in your face may not be the same as I would look at it. Here’s some generalities I can make.
1. There’s different kinds of aggression. True “manfighting” where the rooster tries to flog your leg every chance it can cannot be cured. Its a mental defect within the rooster. Usually that kind aggression manifests itself around puberty, but I did recently observe it develop on a rooster that was around a year old. It takes up to 2 years for most roosters to reach full physical and mental maturity. You’ll want to give one at least that long.
2. All of the manfighters I have had have showed warning signs in advance. Flying up to get in my face and stare me down is one of those signs. This behavior usually starts at chickhood. Even the one that didn’t actually attack me until being a year old would exhibit the stare-down behavior at a young age and other body language that seemed standoffish, like he obviously wanted to attack but thought better of it.
3. My friendly roosters have never turned if they didn’t previously show warning signs.
4. There are lessor levels of aggression that have more to do with the intelligence of the rooster instead of an uncontrollable drive to attack. For instance, one game rooster I have would gently peck me or grab my shorts and pull them down as a young cockerel to get me to feed him. He is smart enough to know I’m the feeder and figured he could get more food out of me if he got my attention. He cut that out as he matured and I was careful never to reward the behavior. Now that rooster is near maturity and I can correct him verbally if he does something I don’t like. Most aggressive thing he ever done was gently peck my hand when picking oregano. He jealously protects the oregano patch and gets agitated if I pick from it. But after verbally correcting him, he has not pecked me again. He’ll just stomp around excitedly when I pick.
5. Give your rooster time. He may not be challenging you. He may just be getting to know you. As long as you don’t have young children around, I’d give him a chance.
1. There’s different kinds of aggression. True “manfighting” where the rooster tries to flog your leg every chance it can cannot be cured. Its a mental defect within the rooster. Usually that kind aggression manifests itself around puberty, but I did recently observe it develop on a rooster that was around a year old. It takes up to 2 years for most roosters to reach full physical and mental maturity. You’ll want to give one at least that long.
2. All of the manfighters I have had have showed warning signs in advance. Flying up to get in my face and stare me down is one of those signs. This behavior usually starts at chickhood. Even the one that didn’t actually attack me until being a year old would exhibit the stare-down behavior at a young age and other body language that seemed standoffish, like he obviously wanted to attack but thought better of it.
3. My friendly roosters have never turned if they didn’t previously show warning signs.
4. There are lessor levels of aggression that have more to do with the intelligence of the rooster instead of an uncontrollable drive to attack. For instance, one game rooster I have would gently peck me or grab my shorts and pull them down as a young cockerel to get me to feed him. He is smart enough to know I’m the feeder and figured he could get more food out of me if he got my attention. He cut that out as he matured and I was careful never to reward the behavior. Now that rooster is near maturity and I can correct him verbally if he does something I don’t like. Most aggressive thing he ever done was gently peck my hand when picking oregano. He jealously protects the oregano patch and gets agitated if I pick from it. But after verbally correcting him, he has not pecked me again. He’ll just stomp around excitedly when I pick.
5. Give your rooster time. He may not be challenging you. He may just be getting to know you. As long as you don’t have young children around, I’d give him a chance.
Florida Bullfrog
Crowing
I’ll add that even my very friendly roosters like to stare at me and consider me. All of mine are game roosters and I think they’re reasonably intelligent for what they are. I wouldn’t speculate exactly what they’re thinking, but I think they’re pondering something when they pay a lot of attention to me. Nothing aggressive, just taking me in.
Welcome!
It can take some time and experience to recognize early signs of human aggression in cockerels or adult roosters, and you'll know more this year as this one matures further. As mentioned, most human aggressive cockerels start sooner, but I've had three adult roosters decide to take me on as two year olds.
I'd make sure that your birds only jump on you when invited, not at random!
Personally I prefer cockerels who avoid me, because they are too busy taking care of their flock, interacting with the hens, and watching out for actual danger.
I hope your boy turns out well!
Mary
It can take some time and experience to recognize early signs of human aggression in cockerels or adult roosters, and you'll know more this year as this one matures further. As mentioned, most human aggressive cockerels start sooner, but I've had three adult roosters decide to take me on as two year olds.
I'd make sure that your birds only jump on you when invited, not at random!
Personally I prefer cockerels who avoid me, because they are too busy taking care of their flock, interacting with the hens, and watching out for actual danger.
I hope your boy turns out well!
Mary
Sometimes/ often, 'friendly' is actually 'bold', and turns into 'difficult' behaviors.
Mary
Mary
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