I have a 3 year old buff cochin rooster that was raised in the house with a silkie chick from the time they were a day old until they were 3-4 months old because of the weather. He was hand-fed treats, talked to and generally fawned over everyday. When he was put in an outdoor coop with his little buddy, they had several more chickens for company, no one picked on them, they still got treats and were hand fed some of them. As he got bigger, he got a new coop with four more cochins that were only about 4 months old. So he was the "king" of the coop. Turned out that the four pullets I bought were actually three roos and one pullet. After a couple of months, when the boys were interested in breeding, I had to move the hen out and look for more hens. I finally found a trio I could get so that I at least knew I was getting two hens and a rooster. At that point, I moved my buff, Rascal, and the new trio, plus the hen into a very large fenced in area with my pair of Egyptian Geese and one of my goats who has to be by himself for health reasons. Rascal was always sweet until last summer. For some reason, he completely changed and now looks for a chance to attack! He has attacked my husband and it was when my husband was sitting down and holding leashes on the dogs when the vet made a farm call to do the yearly shots and heartworm tests. He was completely vulnerable! He was holding the livestock guard dogs and a pitbull mix and was sitting on the ground. The dogs have been in and out of that area many times so that should not have been a problem. Out of nowhere and for no reason we could discern, Rascal flew at Larry and, since Larry threw his hand up in front of his face, he tore his hand up!! Larry was trying to keep him off of him while I was trying to get inside the gate to get Rascal away from all of them. I had to pick him up to keep him away from Larry!
That was not the first time that Rascal had gone after someone, but it was the first time he had gone after my husband. Normally, I am the one who takes care of the animals and he helps with things like fencing and carrying feed in for me so he doesn't interact with them much. But, I HAND-RAISED that ingrate!!!! He tries to attack me every couple of weeks or so! Any ideas why?????? Larry swears that if he is attacked again, he is putting Rascal in the freezer!!
I had one lady tell me to get some ping pong balls and when I get ready to go in their yard, if he is giving me "the eye", I should throw the balls around the yard (not AT him) but to give him something to go look at, to distract him. I have not tried this yet. Has anybody else heard of this type of method? Does anyone have any advice? He will often attack my feet when I'm on the other side of the fence. When he does that, I just stand there and let him until he gives up and then I leave. BUT, then HE CROWS!!!
