How do I get my rooster to stop seeing me as a threat?

3

307151

Guest
He's been attacking me latly. After he does, I do carry him around and hold him and what not. He doesn't attack any of the other animals (other wise I would have cooked him up by now). He was cool before, but now he's doing it more often, and almost always when I'm in the coop now or around it. He is a good rooster though and only gave me a bruise, no bleeding or cuts or any of the horror stories I have read or anything like the last rooster we had. We just have a problem with him seeing me as a threat, and I can tell when he is about to attack me and sees me as a threat. I don't know what to do, I try to talk to him to calm him down, it works sometimes.
 
He's been attacking me latly. After he does, I do carry him around and hold him and what not. He doesn't attack any of the other animals (other wise I would have cooked him up by now). He was cool before, but now he's doing it more often, and almost always when I'm in the coop now or around it. He is a good rooster though and only gave me a bruise, no bleeding or cuts or any of the horror stories I have read or anything like the last rooster we had. We just have a problem with him seeing me as a threat, and I can tell when he is about to attack me and sees me as a threat. I don't know what to do, I try to talk to him to calm him down, it works sometimes.

Stop carrying him, it's degrading for him and he wants to pay you back for that. When he looks like he is thinking of attacking, just start walking towards him, looking him in the eye. Tell him no and keep him moving until he turns away. a few minutes later throw him some seed as a peace offering, repeat as needed. It's your coop, he just lives there. Don't handle his hens during the day if you can avoid it. If they need an inspection or something wait until night time.
 
I actually came across my solution to bratty cockerels while observing my two interact with each other. The alpha is pretty good (he's still young) with the girls but an absolute tyrant to the beta. The alpha is forever randomly mad-dashing towards the beta making him startle and run away. Additionally, at sleepy-time with the last light of the day, the alpha usually saunters over to the beta and beats on him a bit...pecking at his head and neck until the beta gets the idea and moves elsewhere. He doesn't chase...just ensures that the beta knows his place and that he's allowed in the flock only by the forebearance of the alpha. Now the beta gives the alpha a WIDE birth during the course of the day and is always deferential.

When Spring finally started emerging around here and the cockerels both started feeling their oats, both decided it'd be fun to test the wife and I. We went round and round with walking them around, holding them like a sack o taters and/or holding them to the ground for a few minutes until they submit and go limp. Nothing really worked until we took a cue from our alpha and started acting like a tyrant rooster. For no reason, we'd suddenly dart towards one of the cockerels startling them and sending them running. When they'd get close to us and looked too comfortable we'd grab 'em and hold em down with one hand while giving them a few "pecks" in the head and neck with a pointed index finger. Every couple "pecks" we'll grab a fingerful of neck feathers tween the index finger and thumb to simulate a beak and not-so-gently tug. Basically, by being right b@st@rds (like the alpha is to the beta) to the cockerels we've gotten them both VERY wary of us and they cut us a VERY wide berth. More importantly, the challenges stopped immediately and the boys have stayed out of the crock pot.

We didn't want to interject ourselves into the flock dynamics. We were happy to just sit with and observe. But when the cockerels started getting a bit uppity, we had to establish ourselves at the top of the pecking order to keep their behavior in check in order to keep the cockerels as part of the flock. Jabbing an occasional finger at 'em seems a small price to pay for the flavor they add to our little feathered family.
 
Stop carrying him, it's degrading for him and he wants to pay you back for that. When he looks like he is thinking of attacking, just start walking towards him, looking him in the eye. Tell him no and keep him moving until he turns away. a few minutes later throw him some seed as a peace offering, repeat as needed. It's your coop, he just lives there. Don't handle his hens during the day if you can avoid it. If they need an inspection or something wait until night time.
Then why do people say to hold the rooster?
 
I actually came across my solution to bratty cockerels while observing my two interact with each other. The alpha is pretty good (he's still young) with the girls but an absolute tyrant to the beta. The alpha is forever randomly mad-dashing towards the beta making him startle and run away. Additionally, at sleepy-time with the last light of the day, the alpha usually saunters over to the beta and beats on him a bit...pecking at his head and neck until the beta gets the idea and moves elsewhere. He doesn't chase...just ensures that the beta knows his place and that he's allowed in the flock only by the forebearance of the alpha. Now the beta gives the alpha a WIDE birth during the course of the day and is always deferential.

When Spring finally started emerging around here and the cockerels both started feeling their oats, both decided it'd be fun to test the wife and I. We went round and round with walking them around, holding them like a sack o taters and/or holding them to the ground for a few minutes until they submit and go limp. Nothing really worked until we took a cue from our alpha and started acting like a tyrant rooster. For no reason, we'd suddenly dart towards one of the cockerels startling them and sending them running. When they'd get close to us and looked too comfortable we'd grab 'em and hold em down with one hand while giving them a few "pecks" in the head and neck with a pointed index finger. Every couple "pecks" we'll grab a fingerful of neck feathers tween the index finger and thumb to simulate a beak and not-so-gently tug. Basically, by being right b@st@rds (like the alpha is to the beta) to the cockerels we've gotten them both VERY wary of us and they cut us a VERY wide berth. More importantly, the challenges stopped immediately and the boys have stayed out of the crock pot.

We didn't want to interject ourselves into the flock dynamics. We were happy to just sit with and observe. But when the cockerels started getting a bit uppity, we had to establish ourselves at the top of the pecking order to keep their behavior in check in order to keep the cockerels as part of the flock. Jabbing an occasional finger at 'em seems a small price to pay for the flavor they add to our little feathered family.
I read about acting like a rooster towards them with aggression like they do, but other people have said adding aggression just causes more of aggression from the rooster. I did try to be aggressive once with the rooster, that's when he started attackin . He mated with a hen a few times infrnt of me so I would run towards him and kick him off them. But if I just pick him off the hen, he's fine, or if he is running after a hen and I try to grab him, he's fine and listens to me and doesn't fight me to continue going after the hen.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I read about acting like a rooster towards them with aggression like they do, but other people have said adding aggression just causes more of aggression from the rooster. I did try to be aggressive once with the rooster, that's when he started attackin . He mated with a hen a few times infrnt of me so I would run towards him and kick him off them. But if I just pick him off the hen, he's fine, or if he is running after a hen and I try to grab him, he's fine and listens to me and doesn't fight me to continue going after the hen.

The kind of aggression you're talking about does incite more aggression. What you want to do, is meet him where he is. Assertivenss is actually the desired action. Observe how your alpha rooster treats other roosters or hens he is disciplining. He keeps the offending bird moving until it goes away or submits to mating. you will never see your rooster kick his hens. I have 3 roosters and I don't care if they mate a hen in front of me. If they dance to me, I get them moving until they go away. I never run at, or kick my roosters. I do look them in the eye, tell them no, and calmly but deliberately, make them move away and back down. I rarely have to do this and only had one(of these 3) roo dance at me. And, as described above, I let him know that was unacceptable. He has not done it again. All 3 roosters eat out of my hand but otherwise, stay out of my way.
 
Last edited:
The kind of aggression you're talking about does incite more aggression. What you want to do, is meet him where he is. Assertivenss is actually the desired action. Observe how your alpha rooster treats other roosters or hens he is disciplining. He keeps the offending bird moving until it goes away or submits to mating. you will never see your rooster kick his hens. I have 3 roosters and I don't care if they mate a hen in front of me. If they dance to me, I get them moving until they go away. I never run at, or kick my roosters. I do look them in the eye, tell them no, and calmly but deliberately, make them move away and back down. I rarely have to do this and only had one(of these 3) roo dance at me. And, as described above, I let him know that was unacceptable. He has not done it again. All 3 roosters eat out of my hand but otherwise, stay out of my way.
He's the only rooster I have now. He never fought my old rooster but my old one was too aggressive and there was no hope for him. I never see him being mean to the hens, ever, he's pretty respctful to them, one of the hens even used to fight the rooster. He has never mated with a hen directly infront of me either, I've only caught him mating with them when I was around the corner, but I haven't seen him mate with a hen for a few weeks now actually. So if I can tell he's trying to pick a fight with me and will attack me, do I just move towards him? What I do if I move towards him and he attacks?
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom