Got Flogged by A rooster tonight

[kande]

When you feed hens, a rooster can see you as "courting" them. We make a small effort to let our roo get to the food first, so he can call the girls over and be head of the harem. We also have picked up our roo when he's thinking about attacking, and just hold him and an arm for awhile. No petting or baby talk - this not cuddling, its more like a timeout. I learned both of these from my grandfather, who bred and fought roosters for decades (i know, i know). There's a bunch of other stuff he taught us, too, but I don't know how much you guys want to read!

The most important things as far as i'm concerned:

Know your animal, so you can anticipate what he's about do to, and interrupt him beforehand. Cesar Milan does this with dogs, and makes it look easy. Its not easy, but it is simple, if that makes sense.

Stay calm and in control of yourself. You don't want to be on the defensive; running from a roo is just as provacative as rushing him. You don't want to be agressive; just go about your business. If you fight with your rooster, either he is the dominant roo, or you are. If he is, well, learn your place and stay far away from him and his hens. If you are, he's going to challenge you again - he can't leave and go find another harem, and you really are a lousy rooster.

If you sense he's thinking about you too much, be prepared to distact him (toss some food on the ground for him to share with the hens) perform an intervention (a bucket of water over the head has worked for me), or use a timeout of some sort.

Grandpa would point out that the roos seldom bothered the bigger livestock - they ignored each other. Thats the relationship you want. Of course our roos are not part of our family pack, like Cesar's dogs. They are tenants, and can be easily replaced by more agreeable ones.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
This has never been my experience. Of course, I don't commonly "fight" with a rooster but I brook no nonsense and give a reaction to any action on their part. I've never had a rooster continue to challenge that reaction. I've also never seen a subordinate rooster continue to challenge a top roo over and over again for supremacy...either he's in or he's out, but I've not seen one continue with repeated challenges.

Of course, I've never owned any fighting breeds of rooster and that could be all the difference. If you do own fighting breeds, be prepared to deal with the traits that come along with it.

 

[centrarchid]

This has never been my experience.  Of course, I don't commonly "fight" with a rooster but I brook no nonsense and give a reaction to any action on their part.  I've never had a rooster continue to challenge that reaction.  I've also never seen a subordinate rooster continue to challenge a top roo over and over again for supremacy...either he's in or he's out, but I've not seen one continue with repeated challenges. 

Of course, I've never owned any fighting breeds of rooster and that could be all the difference.  If you do own fighting breeds, be prepared to deal with the traits that come along with it. 

Fighting breeds not more apt to fight you.

 

[Beekissed]

You've owned fighting breeds of roosters? Tell us more.....

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Interesting topic. I didn't know it would be a concern of mine till I rec'd 3 cockerels from my neighbor. She has chickens for eggs, and had a hatch with 4 roos. Anyway, she gave me 3. We processed one and ate him...(mmmm..tasted like chicken), and kept the 2 others for breeding purposes.
Now, these boys are only just 7 months old. Not really grown into their rooster traits yet.
I kept the Barred Rock Cockerel sep, and put him with my BR hen. No problem. They are getting along like newlyweds.

The RIR, I integrated him with the flock of 7 hens and 2 roosters. The main flock has their pecking order all down pat. The 2 adult roos are excellent roosters and have never been agressive towards me, or my husband. They protect their girls etc.

They didn't like the new cockerel...of course. He has been in the pen for a week now. They pretty much ignore him now. But the other day, he seemed awfully interested in my black pants I was wearing. My husband thought the cockerel was trying to flog me. I am wondering....being his new status as low on the pecking order.....that he feels he can dominate me. Not sure what is going on here. I just watch him and ignore him for the most part.

I did have a OEGB rooster for a yr and a half. He never tried to flog me either. He just wanted that rooster who was hanging out in the front door glass.

I never coddle them either. I want them to not be willing to come up to me and be tamed. They need to maintain some of their sense of caution.

 

[centrarchid]

40+ years with same line that been in family at least as far back as my great-grandfather. The roosters in particular had to be easy to handle. Flighty birds and man-fighters directed energies inappropriately and the latter which is relevant to this thread could be a risk for handlers. Some of the undesirable behaviors were a function of genetics and was easy to correct by culling. The balance was a function of husbandry technic with a little experience of rooster beyond your control thrown in. Husbandry means you had a calm and steady demeanor around birds. You do not scare them, fight with them, or let them bully you. When hens are kept in the cockyard efforts are made not to rile hens as that can get clocks and bullstags riled against you and sometimes a rooster does not forget a slight. The way I was taught; husbandry with respect to nutrition, housing and direct interaction with birds was every bit as important as the breeding.

Much of the bad reputation games have with respect to flogging was earned by hens in defense of chicks which can be a lot more intense and sustained than non-game breeds can muster. Game roosters are also more inclined to act on behalf of offspring which may ad to reputation

I have seen man-fighting games and they kept by folks that did know their way around the birds. Sometimes even though they had been raised around them. Same parties also seemed hard on kids so behaviors of keepers and parenting may be related.

 

[kande]

It's clear this is very common, and areal concern for a lot of BYCers, judging by the sixty-five pages of comments.

So far, the only advice everyone seems to completely agree on is not to hand feed, and that its not ok to be flogged. Beyond that, our opinions are all over the place (just like the circumstances, I'm guessing).

I'd like some feedback on the advice I gave, and see if we can't come up with some underlying ideas, as well as sharing our stories, both funny and sad. My basic advice was stay calm and in control of yourself, and know your bird well enough to anticipate him - prevent the attempted flogging if you can, instead of having to react to it.

So, while I know I don't even qualify as an amateur chicken psychologist, here's a few thoughts/questions:


Scenarios:
1. Roos attack when they are protecting their hens from preditors.
2. Roos attack to show dominance/keep rivals away from their hens. (established roos)
3. Roos attack to gain doninance/steal somebody else's hens. (young or new roos)
4. What have I forgotten?

Which scenario was yours?
Looking back, what were any indicators he might try something?
What did you do?
Did it work then?
How long before he tried again? If never, how long did you have him after that?
Have you ever culled a roo because of agression? How long did you wait?

Odds are, I'm full of crap about all this, and my wise old grampa is laughing at me up there somewhere. But I'm hoping its helpful - at least until the Monks of New Skete write a new book!

 

[Beekissed]

Maybe you could start a thread on the topic and even do a poll on it so that you can get some feedback on your thoughts. This thread is rather old and worn out.

 

[kande]

Oh yeah, Beekissed - I didn't mean to imply that anyone here would "fight" with a rooster. But the world is full of idiots (including me, on occasion)!

Youtube has some really fine examples of how NOT to interact with roosters. Here's one I watched a few minutes ago:

Do you have a favorite? Maybe we should have a Hall of Shame thread...? none of the really horrible stuff though.

 

[Beekissed]

No, I don't have any favorites. I'm thinking my Hall of Shame would look a little differently than the folks on this forum.

Starting your own thread on this topic is a great idea where you can get some positive feedback on your ideas and can have diverse discussion on the topic. The guy that started this thread has some pretty hard core ideas on how to handle roosters and I'm thinking he'd like his thread to continue in that vein, if at all possible.