Help---My Banty roo is a devil in disguise!

[AHDCST]

I just got a trio of Bard Rock Banties. The little hens are docile and sweet but the roo--Look out! He started crowing the second his feet hit the ground and he flogs me anytime I open the door to his pen! He is very aggressive! If I catch him and hold him he wiggles around till he can bite my hand! He even flogs the side of the pen if I hold my hand up against it. Do I have any hope of reforming him or should I cut him loose and take my losses?

 

[DaughterOfEve]

If you are hoping to breed your hens, and he is a quality specimen then you may want to put in a little effort.

He is just doing his job, protecting his girls and right now you are new and he thinks he needs to protect them from you.
If he has already had a few days to settle in then you can begin brainwashing techniques. Here is what I have had success with. First break his will by just picking him up and carrying him under your arm while you do chores. You may need a heavy jacket and gloves to protect yourself at first. Don't be angry or mean just matter of fact about it. When you finish your chores set him back down. Every time you go out pick him up and carry him around. After a few days it is time to win him over by bringing him away from the girls and offering him treats. Pieces of corn, chopped grapes or apples, use your very best nicey nicy voice. do this a few more days. Then you can take treats out to him and the girls and give them to him. He will call the girls over and share his treats with them. In time he will tolerate your visits. He may never be Mr. Friendly but there will be peace at least.

It may or may not work for you, if I can't turn a roo he will become lunch.
Good Luck.

 

[Emptywagon2]

How do you pick them up when they flog you everytime the pen is opened? I have the same problem with my d'Ulle roo...He is such a beauty but has a nasty temper. @DaughterOfEve..what breed is the hen in your avatar? I have one that looks just like her but don't what she is.

 

[Ibicella]

You can use a net to pin him down or try to catch him in mid-air when he flies at you.

Another trick that works as well is to give him a quick dunk in a bucket of water once you have him (don't try to drown him!). It sounds mean, I know, but the language of roos is to be physical when it comes to territory fights. You have to get physical back at him as if you were another roo. So carrying him around, chasing him away from his hens, pushing him off a hen when he tries to mate, and the quick dunk asserts yourself as Boss Roo.

And yes, I know it sounds mean and like animal abuse, but you're not trying to hurt him, just exert enough force to show him that you are stronger and bigger than he is.

 

[jrgfallbrook]

My beautiful white silky roo developed an attitude last year that just escalated to horrible and then got worse...I was afraid that he would attack one of the grand kids. I started trying different things with him. First I tried the "I will carry you around and be friends" then "I will separate you from the girls and I will be the boss when I am around", "I will be your special friend and give you treats". These methods did not work for me. Then I read somewhere that you can make a spray bottle with ammonia water and adjust the sprayer to stream, rather than fine spray. Every time I open the gate to let them out (they are free range during the day) if he flys at me, he gets it in the face. For the first three or four days he would stand there sideways in front of me and attack if I let up at all on the sprayer. He would not give up until he was completely drenched and stunk of ammonia. Within one week he was through, finished. I was the boss. I was not his friend. I open the gate every morning and he gets as far from me as he can to exit with the girls. Last month I was away on vacation and sure enough, the first time I let him out he needed a reminder that I was still boss.

My first thought when doing this was that it was mean. Now I think it is far nicer to have him here with his girls than to put him down.

 

[AHDCST]

Thanks for the advice. My husband actually talked to the fellow where we got him and is going to take him back and exchange him. I just hope the second one isn't as fiesty as the first!I will keep this advice for reference. Thanks everybody!

 

[DaughterOfEve]

How do you pick them up when they flog you everytime the pen is opened? I have the same problem with my d'Ulle roo...He is such a beauty but has a nasty temper.  @DaughterOfEve..what breed is the hen in your avatar? I have one that looks just like her but don't what she is.

She is a Nankin. There is an old English breed with the same color.

 

[Emptywagon2]

OK...Thanks! I will look that breed up. Thanks also for the spray bottle idea.... teaches him I'm boss without my having to net him. I think chasing him with a net would make him meaner.

 

[gryeyes]

Chasing roosters is one of the worst things you can do when trying to reform a mean rooster. Even if he is running away from you, your chasing him is a challenge AND it doesn't follow the Rooster Rule of Combat: stop when the loser gives up. The Head Boss, dominant rooster, does not chase underlings away, he simply IS the better roo. If the upstart jumps at him or flares his crest feathers, then the Show Down starts. When the loser gives up, turning away from the winner, the winner stops caring about the battle. He's won.

I walk "through" my flock; the hens naturally move aside for me to pass. If a rooster is in my path, I don't veer. HE will have to step aside for me. Mine always do so.

 

[ClareScifi]

That spray bottle tip is interesting. Couldn't ammonia hurt them, though, if it accidentally got in their eyes?