Hello I am new here I have many questions about my 4 month old chickens and roosters

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chickens mom

chickens mom

In the Brooder
5 Years
Jul 13, 2014
46
2
31
We got 12 chickens and 6 mallard ducks 4 moths ago. The black alpha rooster started getting mean chasing the other roosters and pecking them and kept chasing and mating the hens. We put him in a cage by himself. I feel sad for him. The other hens and roosters are doing better but my favorite rooster who was always letting me pick him up and pet him is now pecking at me and seems to not want me to pick him up any more. What happened to him? Can chickens be pets?
 
Welcome to BYC! Chickens can be turned into pets (my children, and now my granddaughter, have done it lots of times), but sometimes you get roosters that turn very aggressive and unfortunately there is nothing that can be done with them except cull them out of the flock. I was commenting on an earlier post today about a very aggressive Golden Polish rooster named Ivan. He was a beautiful rooster (and for some reason was never aggressive toward me), but everyone and everything else was a target for him. Unfortunately, I had to cull Ivan out of the flock. You just cannot have that kind of aggression going on in your flock, and you certainly don't want to breed it into your next generation. You can look at the threads on Taming an Aggressive Rooster at https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=taming+aggressive+roosters, and try and train him not to be aggressive, but I'm not optimistic about your chances. I've tried taming a few (including Ivan) and never had an real success with it. If you find that to be the case, I'm sorry to say this, but your rooster needs to be culled from the flock. Good luck.
 
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Of course chickens can be pets! They are wonderful!! Roosters, however, can be harder to tame especially if they weren't tamed when young. Your best options are to try and hand feed him.

Here's a few more links to check out too.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/276557/how-to-tame-a-rooster
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg101514298860.html?16
http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/help-for-agressive-roosters.aspx
http://ahomesteadonahill.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-raise-tame-rooster.html

Best of luck!!
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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Chickens make wonderful pets. However sometimes roosters do go bad. Sounds like your boy is turning aggressive. And you really can't do much about this either. They have their personalities and ways. So you will either need to rehome him or eat him. I wouldn't keep him around as he is going to get worse and someday could cause you a lot of bodily harm. So sorry.

Good luck with your flock and we do welcome you to our flock!
 
My husband wants to eat him. I don't think I can because he is so beautiful and will always remember when he was a baby chick and even as he grew he would always come running ahead of the other 11 when I take them snacks. They love cucumbers !
 
Try to leave him be or remove the other roosters and see if he settles down. If he serves his purpose without harming the hens, then maybe he is a good rooster but a lousy pet. He is supposed to occasionally beat up on lesser roosters. However, if he won't leave you alone and you can't break him or re-home him, you certainly don't want him to go to waste. If you harvest him humanely and serve him with much care and preparation, then he will have served his noble purpose; protect and service the flock, then nourishing you and your family.
 
Well I always heard you should only have one rooster for all the hens. I am hoping the other two will get along so we can keep them. Thank you all for the comments. I appreciate them.
 

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