HELP - Rooster Issue!

[roxanna924]

I will try to keep this short and sweet.

Somehow we ended up with 3 roosters, never intending to have any. Everyone got along fine for a long time, then the black australorp and rhode island red starting attacking children - unprovoked. I an umsure of what Rooster #3 is. One day, the black australorp killed the rhode island. Rooster #3 is still loving and docile. He is a lap chicken. We gave the australorp away. Lucy (rooster 3) is still my buddy. He comes when he is called, he even nuzzles me. Sweet guy, never attacks ME. Then one day he attacked my mother in law and my children. He only seems to attack people who have never picked him up. My kids are small, 4 and 5 - and now they are terrified of all the chickens because they don't know a rooster from a hen (I've tried to show them but they just don't care after they were attacked.

Why would he do this? Is he tyring show dominance?

 

[speckledhen]

Okay, I'll make mine short and sweet, too.

1)Get rid of any rooster who attacks any human being. You don't need that. Life's too short. Temperament is heritable and you don't want those genes passed down.

2) Kids that age do not belong around roosters, period. They do not react to small kids in the same way they react to adults because of the way kids move and sound.

 

[roxanna924]

These chickens run around my in laws property all day. The kids will just have to be kept away from them. But, then I wonder - why does he attack my MIL? Maybe he's reading my mind and trying to make me proud? LOL She is the only adult he attacks - and she has never done anything to him. She has also never held him. This is the part that confuses me

 

[speckledhen]

Some roosters just know who they can bully, it seems. She shows she's afraid of him, I bet.

 

[roxanna924]

Well, that kills my idea of him being a mind reading attack chicken - I will have to tell MIL to not show fear, maybe she can try picking him up and show him who's boss. Ive been holding him daily since he was a wee chicky!

 

[speckledhen]

If a rooster is going to be human-aggressive, babying him as a chick can actually make that happen faster. He thinks he's equal with you and will challenge you when his hormones start raging. Could be he just likes you and won't attack you, but will attack everyone else, hard to say what's in that walnut sized brain of his, LOL.

The rooster in these videos was not held much at all as a chick, never babied, as he was in a large group I was trying to select from. Thought you might enjoy it:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/384349/sdwd/14610#post_8894682

Another video from photobucket: http://s673.photobucket.com/albums/vv95/Mtnviewpoultry/Video Clips/?action=view&current=DSCN5537.mp4