Help! One of my rooster's is attacking my kids!

[ChurkLover]

We have a small flock of 25 (7 roosters and 18 hens). One of the roosters (I am not sure of the breed but have attached a picture) seems to be dominant along with one other of the same breed. We have a White Leghorn rooster, two Rhode Island Red roosters, a Barred Plymouth Rock rooster and three of this breed in the picture. The one in this picture has been attacking my five and three year-olds when they go out by the chicken house with me and I cannot figure out why. We have had all of these chickens since they were chicks and they are all about 7 months old now. They have free range with plenty of space, food, and water. The attacks started last week where the rooster flaps his wings and gets in the air and scratches the kids' legs with his claws. Of course, now my kids are scared to death to gather eggs or even go to just feed the chickens. Does anyone know why this might be happening? The roosters don't ever show aggression toward me - I don't want this to continue.

 

[silkiechicken]

Time for the soup pot. You have about 5 roosters too many anyways. Pick your favorite and it will lower the stress on the girls as you generally want 1 boy per 10 girls, or they will end up bald on their backs from being over-mated.

The rooster probably sees small humans as a threat or a competitor so is picking fights with them to run them off their territory. It's natural behavior, with some roos not respecting small humans the same as big humans. Some say it's not safe to have roosters around kids just for the reason that they are little stallions with wings that can pack a mean punch and can leave scars after an attack.

 

[ChurkLover]

That makes perfect sense. My husband said tonight's the night for the rooster to be souped...my kids don't want to give the bird away, they said they want to kill it...they are so angry at the bird I can't believe they said that although it deserves it. Is the best way to get rid of the other roosters going to be by placing an add in the paper? I'm new to all of this.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

I agree....get rid of him!!!!

Best way I've found is posting an ad for FREE ROOSTER on craiglist!!

Roosters are a "dime a dozen"....no need to keep bad roosters. I've been there, done that.

Best of luck

 

[QuinnP]

the kids are most likely attacking the rooster. Animals, most of them do not attack unless provoked. Some little jerks (15 & 9 yr old boys) dunked my Arlo into a pond a few weeks ago, & now whenever she sees or hears them she flaps hher wings & gets loud & frightened. (So asre the boys now, they wont come out of the house when I'm there, the wretched little buggers) Nobody abuses my baby.

and humans are supposed to be smart.

hhhiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!

 

[ChurkLover]

I can see where that would definitely provoke the meanness of a rooster. I was actually standing next to my 3 1/2 yr old son, watching the birds eat and the rooster came at him. We were just standing there watching like we have 100 times before. Another incident, I was in the fenced area of the chicken house (the gate stays open til night-time) and my five yr old daughter was walking up to help me gather eggs, and the rooster did the same. Charged her. This morning, my son went ahead of me and his twin sister to open the gate for the morning to let the birds out for the day and before I could get there, he was screaming and the rooster had already attacked him. I then took my son inside the fenced area with me to see what the rooster would do with me standing there and he came at him again (however I intervened before the rooster could hurt him and then the rooster stayed clear). It is possible my son did something to startle the bird when he approached to open the gate or maybe the bird was being territorial. I think he's just a bad apple. My other roosters are awesome and don't do these things.

 

[For-The-Love-Of-Chickens]

I think it has to do with their (meaning your kids) size. He is probably low roo on the totem pole so he gets picked on by all the other roos and has now found that he can be macho and dominant with your kids. Time to get rid of him! You don't say how old he is, but you definitely don't want that kind of behavior after he gets spurs.

We had a roo like that and we waited WAYYYYY too long to get rid of him. We did the "rooster reform" rules with him which helped for awhile, but we could never quite completely trust him. He was always sneaking around behind you and making little jumps and lunges at us. He was ALWAYS after my son. He then turned his aggression to the hens and would drag them around by their neck feathers, waddles, and combs.

Life is so much more peaceful when you get rid of the tyrants!

 

[littlefarm_bighappy]

QuinnP- Are you kidding ?? Roosters WILL attack with NO provocation. I KNOW this because I was attacked by my rooster out of the blue not too long ago. It was a very hard and vicious attack, he came at me three times. he was a year old and had never shown any aggression up until then.

I killed him not even 10 minutes after, because if he had attacked my daughter as viciously, she would have been blinded. I am not exaggerating.

 

[chkinut]

we had a RIR rooster named Del when i was a teenager.....he would always fly up and attack me and my sister....my dad was a cop at the time.....needless to say, he and his off-duty gun took care of Del. POW!

 

[ChurkLover]

Thanks everyone! No doubt this roo is going to go. I feel much better about it knowing how bad it might get and thinking how badly the kids could be hurt. The rooster is only about 7 months old now so I could see this getting way out of hand if not taken care of now.