Help...I hate my Rooster.

[Sunne73]

I have Black silkie rooster that I have a love/hate relationship with. I love him because he is gorgeous but he has turned into a loud, nasty, little jerk. Always the sweetest of my birds when he was young and I swore was a girl, followed me everywhere and loved to be held...he now crows CONSTANTLY and not just once or twice but 20-30 times in a row (which goes through me like nails on a chalkboard), I have to block him when I reach into the coop for eggs and when he is out he just runs after me trying to attack me. What did I do wrong and if anythiing how can I fix this.

 

[ClareScifi]

You didn't do anything wrong. I have the exact same situation with my boy.

If anything, we did too good a job raising our roosters. They are fine protectors and superb roosters-- very virile and protective of the hens. We taught them to do their job.

From what I have fathomed, it's the sweet, good little boys who grow up into these aggressive, vain roosters we have. The roosters who are neglected and not showered with Tender Loving Care turn out to be bland, boring grown-up roosters who have no personality much.

I think we gave our boys extremely high self-esteem, and they feel so good about themselves that they have become narcissists.

When my boy gets obnoxious, I pick him up and pet him, and he calms right down, but the behavior returns later. It's a good thing I'm a masochist, because I don't really mind his pecking. However, he attacked a visitor the other night. Lucky for him, it was a very nice woman. Had it been a mean man, he might have gotten his neck wrung, but it was a wake-up call, and I will always keep him penned up from now on.

Oh, and also, the good news is they get over this nasty behavior, usually, once the teenage time is over, which is when they turn a year old. My boy is almost 8 months old and in the prime of his bad behavior.

So one of these days we'll look back wistfully to these days when our roosters were so lively and testosterone-charged. Time passes so quickly. Before long our roosters will be "old men" and we'll long for these days. Enjoy them while they last. We get to see roosters in action who are full of the zest for life. I think we are the lucky ones.

My boy is a crower, too. He crowed precociously at 7 12 weeks. I had to raise him indoors with me because when he hatched he was unruly and went in every direction under his first-time mother Stepmama hen who nearly pecked him to death. That is when I determined he was a boy-- the hens were very orderly and conformist, unlike my rooster chick.

He lived in my solarium and ate all my precious plants I was overwintering. I think the extra nutrition enhanced his brain and enabled him to crow super early, and his first crow was perfect, no practice needed, and he has crowed nonstop ever since. 20-30 crows in a row is about right. LOL. And loud, shrill crows. At least he didn't crow at the full moon the other night! I heard of some roosters doing that.

My boy has crowed as early as 5:30 a.m. recently and as late as maybe 6 p.m.

Good luck. Enjoy your boy while you can!

 

[drohan]

Y'all are making me laugh! I love the great humor about those obnoxious boys! ClareScifi, I want to know how you get your boy to sleep in until 5:30! My guys, yep mulitple crowers, start in at 4:00 a.m. and no later than 4:30. They will crow if they see a light on in the house! Thank the good Lord I couldn't hear them over the airconditioner when the moon was full! I have one that crows constantly and many times in a row. He is a little bitty rooster with short man attitude, but he's not mean. For the big boy that will attack, I just carry a tiny stick around and he won't come near me. He and I have been working out who is boss. As long as I show him the stick (have never used it at all! LOL!) we are good. I don't let him try to mate with the hens when I am around, as that is dominant behavior. My next step is to start catching him and forcing him to let me pet his waddles. Calms my girls down every time. There is nothing to be done for the crowing. The worst is when Chicken Hawk, the little man, starts is up while we are in the metal barn! Makes me want to throw rocks at him! He would just come back and crow some more.

 

[ClareScifi]

LOL, drohan! Your roosters sound so cute and full of fun!

The 5:30 crowing was super early for my boy. I had forgotten that I had left his expensive rooster food (Nutrena All Flock) outside during the night. I like to put it in the coop so that it doesn't get wet and mold if it rains. I don't know how long it takes wet rooster food to mold, but I don't want to take any chances. So I woke up when the rain started at 5:30 a.m. and thought, "Do I really want to get out of bed and face the wind and rain at this hour?" I decided that I must, so I got up, dressed, and went out to the coop and moved the food, and as soon as I did, the rain immediately stopped and did not resume. (All that effort for naught.)

And to make it worse, my boy, "Baby, the Rooster," heard the commotion and began to crow! Had I been a raccoon, I'm sure he would have nailed me. It's wonderful he's so alert and vigilant!

But, I didn't think the neighbors would be pleased, since the earliest he had ever crowed previously had been 6:30, in the middle of the winter, when it was still dark. That had happened when he still lived in the house and I had gone to check on the temperature in the solarium where he resided and had turned on a light to read the thermostat. He saw the light and crowed his head off. This was a Sunday morning, when the neighbors were no doubt trying to sleep in. For some reason, he always likes to crow the earliest on Saturdays and Sundays, when people are sleeping in! Sometimes I believe he is sadistic.

So, when he crowed at 5:30, I went into the coop and got him and brought him into my office and petted him for an hour and a half. He was so good and didn't poop once nor crow. It was just like he was a sweet little chick again, except he's now too big to fly up and sit on top of my head comfortably. How I miss the olden days when he would do that. He never once pooped in my hair, only one time he pooped when I was wearing a stocking cap, which caused no problem.

 

[ClareScifi]

Drohan,

I forgot to ask whether you keep your roosters in a chicken coop? I think that helps my boy crow a bit later, being in the dark of the enclosed coop, rather than outside.. He can't see when the lights go on in our house when he is in the coop, although he gets up earlier than we do, generally. Recently he crowed at 6:15 a.m., but usually his first crow is at about 6:40, although he has crowed at 6:25 or so a few times. Today he didn't crow until after 7 a.m. I can't figure out what makes the difference-- why he crows earlier some days than others. Maybe one of the hens wakes him up at different times of the morning by bumping into him or something?

I do have a sliding window door on the coop that I leave open so the chickens can exit the coop and go into their greenhouse run as soon as they want to each morning. They seem to really enjoy that freedom. I used to keep it closed to muffle the crowing more, but I was afraid he might get overly sex-charged and more likely to accidentally hurt a hen if he tried mating with her inside the more confined coop where there would be more boards to bump into and such. I also thought they might get too bored in the dark coop, waiting for me to get out of bed. I think the greenhouse run is a bit more stimulating. I think my boy crows more when he is bored or frustrated. When I separate him from the hens and he can see them playing on the other side of the fence he crows a whole lot.

 

[AngryRooster]

this is perfectly normal.

 

[ClareScifi]

What is perfectly normal, Angry Rooster?

 

[Coop de Grille]

Can I join the Bad Rooster club? I have not one, but two adorable bad boys. They are in their own little Bad Boy pen together. One of them is tearing up my hens (who are not enjoying the attention!) and chasing all the younger hens. The other one should be too young to be thinking about mating but he doesn't seem to understand that at all. Yesterday one of them jumped on my 6 yr old scratching her legs. The younger one does not crow at all, but the older one crows at ALL hours of the night. I keep hoping each time I go out there that the Good Rooster Fairy came and brought back my sweet boys.

 

[ClareScifi]

Coop de Grille, did your roosters mate correctly from the get-go? My boy was a little learning disabled in that department, jumping on the girls backwards initially. He finally got it figured out. They were so patient with his clumsiness and lack of sexual expertise. HAHA.

My girlfriend bought the girls Hen Aprons for Valentine's Day-- hot pink with black polka dots and reversible. So cute. That helps keep their backs from getting torn up by the rooster, although that hasn't happened yet, thankfully.

Drohan, how do you keep your rooster from mating with the hens when you are around? I've never been able to accomplish that.

When he was just starting to mate with the hens, his StepMama, who still hated him at that time, knocked him off one of her young pullets as he was in the act, putting him in his place, subservient to her. Another time she ran up when he was mating with another girl and bit him on the rear end, pulling out a tail feather! She finally came to accept him, though. When she finally let him mate with her, I just couldn't believe it. Miracles do happen!

 

[Coop de Grille]

Yes, the older one got it right from the start. What he does though is tear their necks apart. My one hen was ripped up almost a full two inches from her ear lobe down. It was horrible, and he didn't stop. That is when I decided to separate them. The younger one hasn't managed to get it right, at least not that I have seen. He yanks on their backs and tries to get on them but they run away. He is only 10 weeks old!