How to tame a roo??

[cravenchx]

On the first page of this thread, I announced that
I thought we had taken care of Max attacking.
Then yesterday, he started with me. Now, granted
I was adding mulched leaves to the run, and he did
not like the bag I was carrying them in, and after the
4th bag, he came after me. I did ignore and left the
run. When I went back to watch some chicken TV,
he actually tried to attack me thru the fence! So, being
the meany that I am, I went into the run. Yep, I had to
pick him up twice, TWICE!, and hold the head down, walk
around, etc. Will see how if goes today. May be having
chicken and dumplings for supper! He's a 7 month old
EE. Maybe he's between a teenager and a real man?

 

[cravenchx]

Why me? He doesn't bother DH, but he
is still going after me! Why? WHY?

 

[azygous]

I also had a roo that would bite me, liberating deep plugs of flesh every time. Very, very painful.

In addition, I had a roo of the same age, different breed though, who was terrified of me and would have a complete meltdown when touched.

Since my only other experience before this was with one, very aggressive Wyandotte roo who sparred with me every single day of his life, I treated these two new, young roosters the same way I had dealt with the first roo - carried him around, held him on the ground with his head down, and generally smacked him around.

This treatment exacerbated the behavior of both of my new, young roos. Luckily, it occurred to me that both boys were terrified of me and didn't trust me. Treating them roughly only reinforced their negative opinion of me. So I began to be very gentle with the roo who bit me, no sudden movements, no rough handling. With the other roo who was terrified to be touched, I stopped trying to handle him. Instead, I required him to eat out of my hand if he was not to go hungry.

Gradually over time, both boys came to trust me and neither is a problem any longer. In fact, the one who bit me, now is "in love" with me, and offers me the first few bites of every single treat I give him. The skittish roo now permits me to pick him up without a meltdown. Neither roo has ever tried to flog me or attack me.

I believe every roo is different. The standard method on BYC to tame a roo only works with some. About the only common feature all problem roos have is that they fear you and do not trust you. If you can understand your particular roo's personality, I believe you can tailor a program to change his behavior by working to gain his trust. It helps to understand why a roo does what a roo does. Read this. http://olychickenguy.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html

Or you can just eat him.

 

[7L Farm]

My last thought about roo's.I had to kill mine but I do want another one but here again I can't afford to have a roo attack anyone here at 7L. My opinion is to you. You will know when its time to get rid of him. It seems to me & I gave my roo alot of chances to come around & it really never happened but I kept trying. Again, you will know when his time is done after all its your bird but you certainly don't need a bad roo.

 

[Buster123]

I was told every time your roo bit, charged or acted inappropriately towards you, to pick him up, rub him all over and put him back down. If you keep repeating this process then he will quit and you have shown him you are the major roo and you are not to be messed with.

 

[ralleia]

We tried to rehabilitate an aggressive rooster seven years ago. He'd attack me, but not my husband (I'm not sure why, because I am every bit as much willing to take care of business). But we had just had a young baby, too.

I would do chicken chores with the baby high in a carrier on my back. I went in to collect eggs, checking beforehand, and the coop was clear. I was collecting eggs, and suddenly there was an explosion of feathers.

That BO roo was there, facing off against me. He had spurred me good mid-thigh, not far from where the baby's leg rested.

When hubby got home from work a couple hours later I was still carrying around that rooster by his hackles. We had chicken stew that weekend.
------------------------------
What you decide to do depends a lot whether you have children or other animals that may be at risk from an aggressive rooster. If it is just human adults, then you may decide to go ahead and accept the risks. With us, knowing that an aggressive chicken can blind or maim a child, we chose to only keep non-aggressive roosters. Since that time we have had two beloved roosters--one very gentle black australorp, who succumbed to wounds inflicted by a guinea fowl (we ate the guinea after the attack), and a plucky, intelligent barred rock. We also maintain a buff cochin who is dumber than a box of rocks, but he is non-aggressive so he stays.

It all depends on your situation, how much time you are willing to devote, and what risks you will accept.

 

[Kara515]

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!!!

 

[Chick1043]

So he has been trying to mate a lot with the hens..The hens obviously don't like it so today I pushed him off on of them. He didn't like that! I guess he won't 'hurt' you if you don't hurt him! lol Other than that we are best friends

 

[cravenchx]

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!!!

We have the same rooster!!!

 

[Kara515]

We have the same rooster!!!

It's your turn to keep him this week!!! LOL

A week with no attacks!!!! WOW!!!