How do you get a good rooster????

[BigBlueHen53]

That bird would be a field goal. Kick "through" the (feathered) ball!

I was doing my best to knock his head off with my cane. Like something out of a Terminator movie, he just kept coming at me! And I am a pretty tough old bird myself! We waited till he roosted that night and then ... well, he didn't have to worry about crowing the sun up next morning.

 

[ElizaMay]

My first experience with cockerels....I am having a huge learning curve. Everyone has been very helpful!

Basically the moment he dances at you, stop dishing the feed out. You may need to wait it out/it can take time to 'detrain' the offender, but it's important to not give him the thing he wants most, which is food for his tummy and food for the hens - because he sees hurrying you to dish out the feed as his causing the hens to get fed faster. In effect he is using you as the tool to feed the hens and boost his status. Many people talk about giving tidbits/treats to the rooster to distribute to the hens. To me that seems it could lead directly to this sort of behaviour.
On the brighter side, if a rooster has been smart enough to make that connection, he can be trained to understand that the more he tries to push you, the longer it will take to get the feed. So your timing will be important. Stand ther, with the feed,and do not throw it until he is away from you or looking away. The **moment** his back is turned or he moves away, throw out the feed, and keep throwing till you are done or he turns to you again. Then stop. It may be tedious, but it should get the message across that annoying you results in hangry hens.

 

[ElizaMay]

I agree. Roos should just be left to do their job. I have 6. We are not who they should be protecting the hens from. We had a 'Io fly over the other night and all my Roos growled and chased the hens away into the brush. Even my cooped Roo sent my coop girls into the egg house. I love my Roos. They are hilarious. I will however cull any of them that attack me. Although that has never happened. I also can never imagine kicking one as someone else said.

When it is the only way to get a 15lb 28" tall bird fronm jumping at me with spurs trying to flap and claw its way up my thighs, in that situation, you may find you defend yourself with a kick when it charges a second or third or fourth time. If you have not had this experience then that is well for you. It is called 'self defence', it's not deliberately going out of my way to wail on a peaceful bird.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

The question asked was, How do you get a good rooster? And i may have hit on one possible answer. Sadly, a coyote got my good BJG and four of my hens this week, but I have a neighbor who had 15 spare roosters who said I could have one of hers. She offered to let me come pick one out but instead I asked her to bring me one. I said I didn't care what he looked like, I just want one that won't attack me. She brought me a nice big bird that looks like he might be part Buff Orp or possibly New Hampshire Red, but he has white earlobes and a walnut comb. He's a barnyard mix, she said. He's a reddish gold in color and I didn't quarantine him. The girls like him already and I do, too. I asked him his name and he said it was Rojo Maximus (Big Red). I told him I would call him Rojo for short and he agreed. We're going to get along just fine.

 

[Skyleen13]

I’ve had 5 roosters so far and all have been really good boys. Black langshan, salmon faverolle, & silver laced polish. However, my favorite was my little cross fro my black langshan rooster with my red speckled Sussex. He was beautiful. Super friendly. We hatched him from our incubator & had him for almost a year. He was great with his ladies & loved attention from humans. Would run up to us & crow until we picked him up & gave him pets. Then he would make these contented noises that I swear sounded like purring. My sister ended up losing her rooster to a raccoon last year & I gave him to her. Her 2 girls love him. He lets them carry him around while they do their chicken chores. Thing is he recently killed a raccoon who when after one of his new ladies so he’s definitely a great rooster.
My other boys have all been respectful & while they don’t like to be picked up & handled they are calm when they do. Only time one has charged us is when we are trying to catch a hen in the run & then he will try to stop us. He backs down quick when we turn towards him but will come up behind us & wing slap our legs a bit if we’re not looking. He’s young though & we’ve been working with him to not have that happen. He’s figuring it out. We’re hesitant to get rid of him because he’s a proven protector of his flock. He & his daddy took on a big dog to protect his chicks & won. They drove off the dog & gave him a good beating. Neighboor wasn’t happy about her dog getting beat up by my boys but her dog got into my fenced in yard & tried to eat my chickens. His daddy died this last summer. He was 5 years old.

 

[McChooky]

What has worked best for me so far is to let an adult rooster and a flock of mature hens raise a cockerel. There is nobody, IME, better qualified to teach a young whippersnapper good manners than a well-established flock. And don't send your children out to do chicken chores; do them yourself. If a cockerel intimidates a child and the child backs down or runs away, the cockerel will certainly become human aggressive. Once he learns that he can intimidate little humans, then he will attempt to intimidate big humans, and I can tell you from personal experience that a rooster can hurt you. But they do make good soup.

Cockerels raised in well established flocks with older hens have a much greater chance of becoming a good rooster! They also become better role models themselves and teach the young cockerels how to protect the flock.

 

[McChooky]

No. I think it has to do with yard manners. I can not imagine one of my 4 cockerels or 2 Roo’s attacking anyone.

Sorry but I'm not sure if I know the meaning of a "yard bird" or "yard manners". Do you mind if I ask ?

 

[OzarkChooks]

Basically the moment he dances at you, stop dishing the feed out. You may need to wait it out/it can take time to 'detrain' the offender, but it's important to not give him the thing he wants most, which is food for his tummy and food for the hens - because he sees hurrying you to dish out the feed as his causing the hens to get fed faster. In effect he is using you as the tool to feed the hens and boost his status. Many people talk about giving tidbits/treats to the rooster to distribute to the hens. To me that seems it could lead directly to this sort of behaviour.
On the brighter side, if a rooster has been smart enough to make that connection, he can be trained to understand that the more he tries to push you, the longer it will take to get the feed. So your timing will be important. Stand ther, with the feed,and do not throw it until he is away from you or looking away. The **moment** his back is turned or he moves away, throw out the feed, and keep throwing till you are done or he turns to you again. Then stop. It may be tedious, but it should get the message across that annoying you results in hangry hens.

Yeah I think I was unknowingly creating this behavior. I had thought it was cute and funny to feed him all the treats and then watch him feed the hens. Then he started getting pushy at treat time, or really ANY time he saw me. He follows me around outside hoping for food. I have been putting treats on the ground for all the chickens instead of hand feeding him and it seems to be helping. I am trying to teach him some manners so he doesn't end up in the soup pot like our last cockerel!

 

[Beamerz]

My daughter and her daughter raised our chickens and went WAY overboard with making them into pets.. they let them in the house daily , dressed them up at times and spoiled them over the horizon... then they had to move and I ended up becoming "chicken mama" We had 5 roos and had to eliminate 3 right off, but the two poli roos we kept because they were such pets to my granddaughter., and it was bad enough she had to move away from them but not so far as not to visit often. One was 4 months older Black White crested Poli.. and he is the smartest most gentle loving bird and would never fly up at me because he's just so "people attached" because of his crazy upbringing is my feeling... Now the other White poli was also spoiled like crazy but 4 months younger than the other roo .

One day this summer my son came to the house to go into my husbands shop to look for a tool and the white roo was being protective and went after him in the shop being protective of his "turf" and not knowing him really.... My son overreacted to him and for a time after that rooster began to even fly up at me which he'd never done before . Then I had a guy come who was helping me do some chores who was very calm and the white roo, who didn't know him saw him as a threat after he'd had that territorial encounter with my son. I believe they are not much different than people. I think they just get scared for good reasons and try to defend themselves from anything or anyone they think might hurt them or their hens.. I've been working with him and he seems to be loosing his "reactions"... Perhaps some roosters would not retrain but i think this one is retraining , if I had a child I'd likely not mess with it but I think if you are inclined and don't hesitate to teach some reassurance.. it can sometimes work. They are incredibly smart animals and I can't believe how good their hearing is.. My White roo can hear me get out of bed in the morning and my house is not close to the coop.. he crows after my feet hit the floor because I sleep up in a loft in my guest house and he knows it's me.. I'm giving it my best shot!

 

[BecaHawaii]

Sorry but I'm not sure if I know the meaning of a "yard bird" or "yard manners". Do you mind if I ask ?

Sure. I have “yard birds” and “coop birds”. My coop birds stay in all the time my yard birds stay out all the time. “Yard Manners” I guess is just when someone walks towards them they don't come at them. They still come near me, still, come running. Still, hang out with me. They just have “yard manners”. If I get up then everybody gets up. Everybody walks away.