How do I pick up my crazy roo??

[kkenney]

This rings true to my flock too.

 

[Beer can]

There are good roosters, and bad. In my experience, mine, IMHO most hatchery roosters have been bad. No amount of trying to make them good works, it's genetic. A breeder or even a good small hatchery culls the bad out. Large hatcheries hatch eggs for sales, #'s without the thought of temperament. There is good roosters and I've had many bad mankillers, had one I thought was good, until he attacked my kids, then kept them in the coop, then he attacked me hard core.
Best thing to do in my humble opinion is to not make friends with your young rooster, but show him your the boss, every time you feed the flock, interact, walk right up to him and make him back away. Let them still 'do their thing' just make sure they know your the boss and don't accept no aggression. I don't make pets out of my birds so someone that does might have better methods/advice in those situations, I just know what has worked for me. I do not tolerate aggression in roosters, they become soup. Their offspring becomes soup, same thing, might take 2-3yrs, comes out eventually like Jekyll and Hyde. ..
Get a good rooster, cherish him.
I have one now that was aggressive enough to fight and chase off a fox to save his girl's (lost one in the attack but he beat the crap out of that fox) but is so docile my small kids can pick his big azz up, he's friendlier than the hens. You'll get a good rooster eventually, keep him.

 

[Cluckerzfamilyfarm]

Can I put my two cents in here? So I am new to all of this but still do not agree to alot of this so here is one more side of the story. I recently picked up a "mean" rooster and I too have kids 3 and 9. Now that being said a rooster is teachable. Now I'm not saying trainable by any means. No he wont go fetch you a stick or your drink from a fridge. You need to learn to speak chicken. To him you are in his space and when he sees the little ones he thinks "pecking order" he pushed my 3 year old down one time and it was the last. You and your kids EVERYtime he approaches you in an unfriendly manner. Even if he is just walking fast to catch up you face him and hold your arms out ( making you even bigger to him, like a peacock) and stare him down MAKE EYE CONTACT THE WHOLE TIME!!!! and you wait until he bows to you. He will give in and start looking at the ground dont give in yet! Not now! You continue looking that little a$$^%le in the eye. When he starts eating (pretend eating) or walks away he has stepped down his pecking order. You have won in chicken terms. His terms. This is not a one time deal. My daughter does not go outside without me. It has been repeated. But it has gone from x2 intensifying show downs to 1 yesterday and then today nothing happened. Still doesnt like the wife very much but she wont stop running away. Fyi: they love playing tag your it when you run. I hope you give him a try befor dinner table. Now I live on a farm. I'm all about dinner lol but if you like the guy then there are ways to "teach" him.

 

[MissChick@dee]

Sorry I have no words of rehabilitation for you. I learned the hard way with much heartache about Roo’s. I was not afraid to handle, pickup or work consistently with them. I went through 3. I only want eggs so really didn’t NEED a Roo. You said toddler???? Honey PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. Think about it. Roo’s will come and go this is your baby. The damage they can do as they get bigger is REAL. TRUST ME. Okay (sigh) I’m done.

 

[Cluckerzfamilyfarm]

Eye contact is the key here in my opinion. They have very good vision and if you watch closely you can see the roosters eyes zoom in and out on your face. That's bc he is reading you. They may not be bright animals but survival is in every living thing. Everything watches the others moves and judges. Its nature. Yes he will always have the mean side only difference between a mean rooster and a nice one to me is. The mean rooster just has bigger balls and needs to be reminded it's your coop he just spends the night

 

[Folly's place]

Clucker, I hope your plan continues to work for you and your children. Really human aggressive cock birds never give up! They do have big balls, much bigger than their little brains, and it shows.
Mary

 

[MickWithChicks]

A lot of differing opinions here, and all of them have merit. Training your rooster to have better behaviour will only work with the handler. I.e, unless you train your toddler to train the rooster, the rooster will still see himself as higher up the pecking order than said toddler. That means training both a rooster and a toddler; not an easy task.

@redranger209 makes some good points that killing the rooster shouldn't necessarily be the first option. However, no amount of training of the rooster to submit will make your toddler safe around your rooster. The article linked outlines a couple of methods to make your rooster submit, but I'm assuming your toddler won't be able to carry the rooster around while he does his chores (whatever a toddler does for chores these days) for 15-30 minutes, and he probably won't be able to hold him upside down by the legs, either.

This means your only option to keep your rooster is to ensure that your toddler can't go near him. We can keep toddlers out of pool yards with adequate and safe fencing, so we can surely keep them out of chicken runs. That might mean that your toddler will miss out on some valuable lessons that he'd otherwise have by you having a friendly rooster and flock.

If you absolutely want a rooster, get a friendly one. There are plenty of friendly roosters that need rescuing from death-row that'll treat you and yours better than your current roo' does. I'd still be keeping the toddler away from the new rooster though.

For what it's worth, I have 4 roosters in a rooster flock together, solely because I hatched them and I like them. None of them are human aggressive, but if any of them were, he'd have been humanely euthanised ages ago.

 

[Cluckerzfamilyfarm]

Lol yes my toddler. May only be 3 but raised outside on a farm daily. You would be surprised how well a child of young age can handle a situation when raised around them every day. Now I'm not saying they cant randomly attack or that I'm not scared they will bc I am scared they will. But if you (anyone) had one as a pet for the hens and didn't want to resort to bang bang..... and it like everything else falls under opinion. My opinion so I hope I didn't offend anyone with my child being around a so called "mean" rooster. My child may be 3 but they have learned "pecking order" and will handle business. With me standing there of course lol

 

[Kfults]

I am new to having a Roo, ( cockerel) he has “ tried” me once by approaching me in an aggressive stance- ( I was between him and the pullets) I put him in his place. I go into the secure chicken yard everyday and bring my plastic rake. I make him back up and move away from me as I work. I had a sickly looking hen, and as I picked her up she squawked. He came running. I took my rake and stopped his advance and made him back up from me. Now when I enter the yard he gives me tons of space. My brother n law pointed out if a predator was after a hen and she called for help- I would want him to rush in to fight. It is his job, I need to teach him I am NOT to be messed with. He is full of hormones and both times he was trying to rescue the pullets. He is a good flock leader. Gentle with the pullets and no forced breeding. I will keep working with him. I will not tolerate unprovoked attacks. If those begin he is a dead Roo. So far he is non confrontational with me on a daily basis and stays out of my path. I will say he is in a run or yard and separated from everyone else. We have 4 family homes sharing 5 acres and anytime someone else is outside he crows like crazy. I call him my guard Roo. No one enters the chicken yard but me.
I think you have to work with young cockerels and set boundaries, I also know from living on my grandpa farm there are some Roo who are just mean and should not be kept. Everyone has an opinion ( just like with dogs). You have to be able to live with the decisions you make.

 

[Cluckerzfamilyfarm]

I agree with you Mick. It is an everyday thing. It's all on the approach. I dont mind letting a rooster know who's boss everytime I approach him. My daughter doesnt mind bc she gets to stare at a chicken lol it just depends on the handlers and what they are willing to do to make sure something isnt being killed just because its different. If that's how life should have been there would be a lot less people walking around lol. I'm all about raising birds for meat. But will never kill one until its ready to be used. We are the bigger animal. Put him in a cage until ready for dinner. But some ppl just kill and compost the damn thing just bc it was mean. It's all just how one person sees it.