How do you get a good rooster????

[BesideStillWaters]

Yeah we decided a little while ago that a free ranging rooster and kids was not a good fit for us. My husband is in the process of fencing in a chunk of one of our pastures for the chickens. I've decided to wait until my kids are older to raise another rooster. Just seems safer to me. I should probably view them the same way I view bulls or bucks around the kids. Hard to remember that since they are significantly smaller!

Definitely like bulls. They seem to be likely to charge the color red. I avoid wearing red around them now.

 

[BesideStillWaters]

So the cockerel, Bruno, is still around for various reasons. We are just waiting for my husband's day off.

Since I have taken over all chicken chores, to keep my son out of harms way, I have noticed some behavior I find interesting.

Every time I go out to feed them, Bruno rushes up to me and circles around me making that noise he makes for the hens when he finds food. He is also constantly trying to corral me with his litle shuffle dance. I am on high alert with him because he flogged my son. I keep expecting him to try it with me but he just acts very weird. He runs right at me, stands on my boot and does that dance. He will then attempt to chase me with a wing out when I turn to leave. I turn to face him every time and he stops and just keeps making that "I found a treat" noise. I'm just interpreting all of this as aggression or maybe a prelude to aggression .....but I am very curious what he is doing? Why is it always when food is involved? If I am not feeding them, he loses interest and leaves me alone.

My boys will do similar things. Mating dance. Looks like he thinks you are a hen.

 

[BesideStillWaters]

My brother has a gigantic barred rock rooster “colonel sanders” he goes savage sometimes and a good swift kick usually sets him straight. I thought my brother broke his foot kicking the colonel once it was so swollen and black and blue. My rooster “lucky” decided to go for myself and the kids a few times. A good kick did the trick. I don’t condone animal abuse, I view this as self defense, they have to behave or it’s the pot for them.

My grandma did this to one of theirs once. She said she was hanging laundry out to dry and the rooster always came at her. She finally got sick of it and when it came at her, she kicked it hard enough she thought she killed it because it stopped moving. But when she went back out with another load, it came at her again. Stubborn thing.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

In my opinion, aggression in roosters is mainly due to the body language of their keepers. There are several articles on BYC about rooster behavior, and I can link you to a few of them drawn from various management styles if you wish.

I know there are 13 pages of replies after this, and I haven't read all of them, but I disagree. My first flock was a flock of four, three hens and a rooster. He was a cochin. He was a total sweetheart and my only experience ever with a rooster, so I naturally developed a sense of comfort and trust with him which expanded to other roosters. Later, I let a hen hatch some chicks, one of which wound up being a male, and then I purposefully bought a blue copper Marans rooster with some pullets. They were raised in a brooder. I sweet talked all of the chicks, both by the broody and from the hatchery. Fed them treats out of my hand, etc.. Although I don't cuddle them, I only want them to not be afraid of me. Even until they were 20 weeks old, I never once felt nervous because I had never had a reason to be. Then one day, out of the blue, the Marans rooster flogged me while my back was turned. I literally didn't even know what hit me. From that day on he became a nightmare, flogging anything that moves. We culled him and still have the other rooster 18 months later. Somewhere during that time, the cochin was killed by a bear. However I have pictures of him cuddling the cockerel hatched from the broody! They were so sweet together. As for the Marans, reviews from the hatchery website consistently stated their roosters wound up being jerks. I'm of the opinion that you can do everything "right" but they will be bad if genetics were bad. However, I think the influence of a broody hen can help create a better adjusted rooster. The day I butchered the Marans rooster, I set some eggs from him, and kept a single Blue Copper Marans cockerel from that clutch. He was raised by a broody and is about 18 weeks old now, and has so far shown all the signs of a well adjusted rooster. I hope it remains that way.

 

[BantyChooks]

Genetics sets the stage, but how well suited your management style is to your rooster's temperament certainly plays a role.

 

[dbaine]

Recently we had to cull l one of our 5 month old cockerels due to aggression. Tonight our remaining cockerel flogged my son, twice. I know I have little experience but how on earth do you get a rooster who isn't human aggressive? I would really like to be able to hatch my own fertilized eggs. I also want my hens to be watched after. Is it just luck of the draw with roosters?

I have had several good roosters and several bad ones. The trick, as far as I can tell, is that the young Roos who were raised with a good roo learned to be good. The ones who were raised, with no mature roo around, were way more aggressive. I think it’s because they are trying to learn what to do working on instinct alone. That’s the only thing I can think of. And it’s been that way with every mean roo I’ve had. They didn’t have a nice role model. That’s just my opinion. I hate an aggressive one! I have scars on my legs from a particularly nasty one. But once I got a nice one who was around for years, none of the little ones he raised were bad

 

[McChooky]

I know there are 13 pages of replies after this, and I haven't read all of them, but I disagree. My first flock was a flock of four, three hens and a rooster. He was a cochin. He was a total sweetheart and my only experience ever with a rooster, so I naturally developed a sense of comfort and trust with him which expanded to other roosters. Later, I let a hen hatch some chicks, one of which wound up being a male, and then I purposefully bought a blue copper Marans rooster with some pullets. They were raised in a brooder. I sweet talked all of the chicks, both by the broody and from the hatchery. Fed them treats out of my hand, etc.. Although I don't cuddle them, I only want them to not be afraid of me. Even until they were 20 weeks old, I never once felt nervous because I had never had a reason to be. Then one day, out of the blue, the Marans rooster flogged me while my back was turned. I literally didn't even know what hit me. From that day on he became a nightmare, flogging anything that moves. We culled him and still have the other rooster 18 months later. Somewhere during that time, the cochin was killed by a bear. However I have pictures of him cuddling the cockerel hatched from the broody! They were so sweet together. As for the Marans, reviews from the hatchery website consistently stated their roosters wound up being jerks. I'm of the opinion that you can do everything "right" but they will be bad if genetics were bad. However, I think the influence of a broody hen can help create a better adjusted rooster. The day I butchered the Marans rooster, I set some eggs from him, and kept a single Blue Copper Marans cockerel from that clutch. He was raised by a broody and is about 18 weeks old now, and has so far shown all the signs of a well adjusted rooster. I hope it remains that way.

Hatched chicks that don't have broody's or mature roosters to act as role models have a disadvantage. In my experience people with roosters raised in a mature flock have better luck with them.Any rooster can become aggressive in the wrong environment.

 

[Trish1974]

I think the breed has a lot to do with it. I have bred Araucanas for three years now (roughly 150 chicks hatched) and have NEVER had an aggressive cockerel or cockbird. It doesn't matter if they have been raised hands-on or hen hatched and flock raised. I have several repeat customers who buy my cull males for Easter and Olive egger projects, and none of them have had an aggressive male either.

Over the decades I've heard many horror stories about barred rocks and Rhode Island reds, so that too makes me think breed has a lot to do with temperament.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I think the breed has a lot to do with it. I have bred Araucanas for three years now (roughly 150 chicks hatched) and have NEVER had an aggressive cockerel or cockbird. It doesn't matter if they have been raised hands-on or hen hatched and flock raised. I have several repeat customers who buy my cull males for Easter and Olive egger projects, and none of them have had an aggressive male either.

Over the decades I've heard many horror stories about barred rocks and Rhode Island reds, so that too makes me think breed has a lot to do with temperament.

Bit off topic, do you ever ship eggs or chicks?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Also wanted to add that even friendly breeds miss the mark sometimes. Out of 6 Cochin bantams males, I had 1 begin to display warning signs (I cannot put his face my mine period and cannot reach in and pet him. I have to pick him up and then pet) and 3 other's were complete aholes to either people, other birds, or both.