How can I fix this

[tlcmurphy]

You certainly aren’t being a burden, we are just concerned you or someone else may get hurt by him if he gets more aggressive,
Sorry you lost your other bird

 

[littledog]

I don’t know what I have been doing wrong I was really hoping that I was the problem not him we have had a bond since day one that’s why I can’t stand to part from him because he is way to special because I brought him home from my school because we raised them and I would feel like a disappointment to my self because that rest of the chicken that were hatched out with him have died because of natural causes I just don’t know what to do. I know he could be a wonderful rooster if he mine and his bond could be good again . Is there any tip to try to rebuild his bond with me or try to help with his behavior I could never see my flock without him (I would like so positive feedback if possible) he is only 7 months old I don’t know if as he ages he may get calmer

There's nothing wrong with him being special to you and you wanting to keep him as your flock rooster... but the bond you had with him when he was a youngster has to change. He's a big boy now, he's ready to be the flock boss, no longer your little boy.
You've done nothing wrong! But now that he's a "Man" it's normal that he's trying to be dominant over everybody, including you - so you have to let him lord it over the hens but teach him you are still his boss.
Everything @DobieLover says is the truth, but I believe if you can get over your fear, become more dominant with how you behave towards him and the rest of your flock, you can achieve a safe and peaceful flock with him as king caretaker of the hens, and you as Emperor of All.
Never let him fly up and flog you!!! Ever! Shove him down when he does that, if you're in fear of his spurs get yourself a trout net and use that to put him back down on the ground. It won't hurt him, but shove him back on the ground 2 or 3 times, and he will respect you. Once he learns that, keep the net beside you as you pick up each of the hens whenever you want, until he gets with the program, he is the protector of the flock but you are the ultimate authority.

Most roosters can get to understand you are the boss, but the more important test of whether he deserves to be a flock rooster is, how does he treat the hens? A deserving flock rooster respects them, he scratches up treats and calls them over to partake. When he breeds them he waits for them to sit down, sometimes grabbing their neck but not aggressively. A mean flock rooster chases and rips the hens by the neck and breeds them whether they like it or not, sometimes injuring them. If he's mean like that, get rid of him.

If your boy treats his hens nicely and develops a respectful attitude towards you, you should keep him. Don't expect him to ever act like the little chick when he loved you, but respect him as a team member and always require him to respect you.

 

[nuthatched]

Give him away with full disclosure or cull him, he's your responsibility to deal with and he's not a good boy.
It shows good maturity taking care of a problem you brought home.

 

[Yardmom]

We have had several (currently a dozen) cockerels over the last 10 years. My daughter handles the chickens including holding and cuddling cockerels. Only one of the cockerels ever became people aggressive. Some cockerels are just not going to act kindly. Your chicken keeping will be much more enjoyable for you and your hens if you don't keep the boy.

 

[Show chick]

There's nothing wrong with him being special to you and you wanting to keep him as your flock rooster... but the bond you had with him when he was a youngster has to change. He's a big boy now, he's ready to be the flock boss, no longer your little boy.
You've done nothing wrong! But now that he's a "Man" it's normal that he's trying to be dominant over everybody, including you - so you have to let him lord it over the hens but teach him you are still his boss.
Everything @DobieLover says is the truth, but I believe if you can get over your fear, become more dominant with how you behave towards him and the rest of your flock, you can achieve a safe and peaceful flock with him as king caretaker of the hens, and you as Emperor of All.
Never let him fly up and flog you!!! Ever! Shove him down when he does that, if you're in fear of his spurs get yourself a trout net and use that to put him back down on the ground. It won't hurt him, but shove him back on the ground 2 or 3 times, and he will respect you. Once he learns that, keep the net beside you as you pick up each of the hens whenever you want, until he gets with the program, he is the protector of the flock but you are the ultimate authority.

Most roosters can get to understand you are the boss, but the more important test of whether he deserves to be a flock rooster is, how does he treat the hens? A deserving flock rooster respects them, he scratches up treats and calls them over to partake. When he breeds them he waits for them to sit down, sometimes grabbing their neck but not aggressively. A mean flock rooster chases and rips the hens by the neck and breeds them whether they like it or not, sometimes injuring them. If he's mean like that, get rid of him.

If your boy treats his hens nicely and develops a respectful attitude towards you, you should keep him. Don't expect him to ever act like the little chick when he loved you, but respect him as a team member and always require him to respect you.

Thank you for the advice I know he can be a respectful rooster he just needs some reprimanding and I need to get over my fear you are one person who is really trying to help me not just telling me to get rid of him

 

[arianna7]

if you need a 100th opinion, cull em

 

[User690263]

That was the first mistake. Cockerels are born flock protectors. Chickens are prey and you are a predator. When they are tiny chicks, their behavior is very different compared to when their hormones kick in.

He will be worse in the spring when he gets a hormone surge.

This is another major issue. You can't fear them.

This is a big red flag for me too. You are not treating your chickens like chickens. You are treating them more like puppies.

Every species has their own specific needs and behaviors. Cockerels are hard wired to fight. They are flock defenders. Something in your behavior (I imagine it's your attempts to "love on" your flock that triggered most of it) made him think you are a threat and must be kept away from HIS flock. That's another misconception. You think the pullets and hens are yours. They aren't. They are his. He is the one who is with them 24/7.

When you attempt to pick up his hen or even reach out and look like you are going to grab a hen, that is a threat to him (at this point).
When you attempt to give your hens treats, you are a threat to him because he perceives this as attempting to take his hens from him by offering them goodies. That is HIS job!

Do you see where this is going?

Yes, I believe he can be rehabilitated but you need to completely change your attitude perceptions and behavior and from what you've written, I don't think that practical. For you, I think he should be rehomed to someone with experience raising cockerels. You need a lot more experience with chickens before you should consider raising a male in the flock. He has no bond with you. He just wants a flock of ladies. I would advertise him and hopefully someone will want him for a flock leader.

On a side note, it doesn't look like you have anything for enrichment in the pen for your flock. They need perches, stumps, old wood chair, etc to hop up on to hang out and preen. They do well with organic substrate to scratch around in. I would just get down to an all female flock and work on enriching their space.

Not trying to start conflict, but there is genuinely nothing wrong with treating chickens "like puppies". I'm all the years that I have had chickens, I have never had issues caused by socializing them and handling them a lot. At the farm that I work at, there is a rooster named pancake, and he COULD NOT care less if you pick up one of "his" hens.
I feel like even if your comments were intended to be helpful, they came of (at least to me) as confrontational, and likely didn't really make the OP feel better about the stressful scenario that they are dealing with. Guilt is never easy to deal with, and comments that are essentially blaming someone don't help.
Again, this is just my opinion though.

 

[FrostRanger]

Cockerels are a gamble, sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't. Whether anything you did or didn't do caused this, who knows. It's entirely possible that he would have wound up like this even if you did everything perfectly. Some roos are just going to be jerks no matter what you do or don't do. He also looks like a rhode island red and their roos are notorious for above average human aggressiveness (not every RIR roo is a jerk mind you, but you are more likely to run into issues with hatchery quality RIRs). Regardless of why he's as he is, he needs to be culled, he's already extremely aggressive and it's more likely than not only going to get worse. Learn what you can improve on your end but do not beat yourself up, you're still learning and you may not have had all that much to do with his attitude, I think a good part of it is you just got dealt a bad hand genetically. You're going to get different opinions on whether handling causes problems. IMO as long as you're maintaining proper boundaries and aren't chasing him or letting him on your shoulder (this one is for safety reasons as an aggressive roo can take out an eye) it doesn't matter too much. Might it be problematic for individual birds? Yes, but others it won't matter either way

And don't ever feel like you're a burden here, we love helping people

 

[DobieLover]

Thank you for the advice I know he can be a respectful rooster he just needs some reprimanding and I need to get over my fear you are one person who is really trying to help me not just telling me to get rid of him

Roosters do NOT respond to reprimanding.

you as Emperor of All.
Never let him fly up and flog you!!! Ever! Shove him down when he does that, if you're in fear of his spurs get yourself a trout net and use that to put him back down on the ground. It won't hurt him, but shove him back on the ground 2 or 3 times, and he will respect you. Once he learns that, keep the net beside you as you pick up each of the hens whenever you want, until he gets with the program, he is the protector of the flock but you are the ultimate authority.

No human is Emperor of All of a flock. You would have to live with them 24/7 and be able to learn their communication to do that.

You also cannot stop a flog that has started and unless you know the early signs of trouble with a cockerel/rooster. Then you can move in to cut it off before it starts. That is what I did with my boy. I'd see the look, the body posture, the dropped shoulder, the randomly picking things up and slowly approaching me. When I saw any of that, I'd reach out and grab him and push him to the ground and hold him there until he stopped struggling. Then I'd pick him up and carry him to a chair and sit him on my lap. I would just stand him on my lap and put my hand in front of his chest to keep him there until he calmed down and then I'd let him jump off. Sometimes that would be it for the day.
Sometimes he'd hit the ground and spin around for more. I'd call it our dance. I kept going until he finally gave up.

As for the flogging, you go in to the the flock dressed for that. Long stout pants and boots. You have to keep one eye the rooster at all times without making direct eye contact. Direct eye contact is a challenge he will accept. I personally like to just let them flog away as I slowly and CALMLY walk right into it. It confuses the hell out of them and they quickly learn that flogging does not produce the desired results. They do that enough times, the will give up.

Most roosters can get to understand you are the boss

He will never understand that. What you want is to reassure him you are not a threat and won't hurt him but will never back down to his aggression.

When I bring treats out to the flock, I walk straight to the rooster and give them to him or drop them at his feet and walk off so he can be the one to call in his hens for the lovely treats he just found for them.
No threat.

A mean flock rooster chases and rips the hens by the neck and breeds them whether they like it or not

Cockerels will do this until they learn better or are put in their place by dominant females or a senior rooster. It isn't arbitrarily a black mark on the list.

Not trying to start conflict, but there is genuinely nothing wrong with treating chickens "like puppies". I'm all the years that I have had chickens, I have never had issues caused by socializing them and handling them a lot. At the farm that I work at, there is a rooster named pancake, and he COULD NOT care less if you pick up one of "his" hens.
I feel like even if your comments were intended to be helpful, they came of (at least to me) as confrontational, and likely didn't really make the OP feel better about the stressful scenario that they are dealing with. Guilt is never easy to deal with, and comments that are essentially blaming someone don't help.
Again, this is just my opinion though.

Doing something wrong because you just don't know any better is nothing to feel guilty for. There is no guilt to be had here and none was offered. It's simple naivety. That's all. But a great deal of rooster aggression can be tied directly back to human error in their behaviors around the flock. Guess how I know that?

Some roosters are laid back.
Some are super human aggressive and cannot be changed.
Most lie somewhere between the two extremes.

The OPs bird is leaning to the wrong side of the spectrum and coddling this type of animal that perceives things as threatening will never help. Neither will trying to dominate him or be his 'boss'.

I believe there is a mind set with the OP that precludes a successful rehabilitation. This is not confrontational. Just my perception of the situation based on reading hundreds of threads like this and from my own experience with dozens of cockerels/roosters of my own. I know what works and what does not. It takes the right attitude about the situation (leaving blame and guilt out of the equation as they are useless) and consistent work to succeed. I learned everything from rehabilitating my rooster and have never had a single issue with any of his sons or other males hatched into my flock because I've changed the way I interact with the flock and the males within it.

 

[SamLockwood]

I have plenty of advice on how to rehab a pushy or "pre-aggressive" rooster that's trying to herd you, pecks at you sometimes, or otherwise tries to boss you around.

If your rooster has escalated to flat out attacking you, and by "attack" I mean he's acting like he's in a cockfight with you (hackles raised, flogging you with his wings and kicking or trying to spur you), I think it's probably past the point of no return.

Chickens have much less in the way of brains than say dogs or cats, and a lot more of their behavior is hard-wired. They basically only perceive creatures as either food, mates, or threats. They also have no concept of a "relationship of equals": there's no such thing as a "tie" in the pecking order.

Your rooster either sees you as either a threat, a rival, or he's dominating you to show off to the rest of his flock. You're quite right to be concerned about the small child that comes by your property, children tend to make chickens nervous with their antics and if your rooster is already tetchy he'll sooner or later go after the kid.

In general when people ask "should I get or keep a rooster" my advice is "NO." This is especially true if you have small children, are inexperienced with chickens in general, or you're the type of person that finds themselves being terrified of a small bird with a bad attitude.

Unless you're free-ranging your chickens or you want to breed your own chickens, a rooster isn't essential to the backyard-chicken-keeping experience. Even at the best of times roosters can try your patience: they're noisy and even the more docile ones can become "drama kings" in the right circumstances. When they're adolescents they can ruin your chicken-keeping experience for you, especially if you don't have any mature birds in the flock to curb their behavior.