How to tame aggressive rooster?

[centrarchid]

If serious about reconditioning and have the resources, then take a video of him and how you interact with him. It will allow me to chew your tail for starters on what not to do. Then we can commence making adjustments to the behavior of you and your family members to get rooster back on track.

A little secret from a big blunt keeper of a good number of pet (often had-raised) roosters that are good around even little kids. I am not the boss over the roosters.

 

[Cimmaron]

I'm curious whether anyone has successfully tamed a rooster once he is already aggressive. So far my experience with probably over 100 roosters is that once they start getting aggressive they only get worse and I'm better off replacing them with a nicer individual I've had some really nice ones, though. I love it when I find a rooster that takes good care of his hens and protects them from predators, but is good around people too!

 

[centrarchid]

I'm curious whether anyone has successfully tamed a rooster once he is already aggressive. So far my experience with probably over 100 roosters is that once they start getting aggressive they only get worse and I'm better off replacing them with a nicer individual I've had some really nice ones, though. I love it when I find a rooster that takes good care of his hens and protects them from predators, but is good around people too!

I have done it. Process is labor intensive and requires a thick skin. The line I have done it with repeatedly has a genetic component complicating their management. I have more than one line and you can see differences between them that are likely related to risk of man-fighting. A big part of the man-fighting is promoted by how the bird is interacted with. It is easy to get a rooster to backslide into bad behavior and some of the "treatments" advised as a method for taming promote the backslide.

 

[Shadrach]

I have also done it. What centrarchid has written above I completely agree with.
There are numerous articles and threads on dealing with rooster behavior. Some may work for some people, others may not.
My view is it is usually the human who is the problematical part, not the rooster.

 

[SarahGfa]

It is easy to get a rooster to backslide into bad behavior and some of the "treatments" advised as a method for taming promote the backslide.

Which are the wrong "treatments"?

 

[Tylerblockbuster]

I grab mine and carry them while I do chores takes a couple of weeks but helps

 

[Alexandra33]

I've never had success nipping bad behavior in the bud once it's begun. No methods worked in any of my cases....if anything, this exacerbated the issue. In fact, as explained below, my technique in raising them was likely the culprit for repeated belligerent displays.

Logically speaking, it makes sense to me that a rooster shouldn't "fear" their handlers, as is common practice, lest they feel obligated to react out of anxiety. Looking back, my instructed terrorization of young cockerels (starting before they reached maturity) may be to blame for rock bottom success rate. Only 1 out of 30/40-some retained unaggressive qualities....terrible odds. That's a mistake that will never happen again. Deliberate invasion of his space, pinning him to the ground for instinctively crowing in my presence, shoving him roughly (baseless, too) out of the way, stomping loudly towards him ect., seem to teach fright, rather than respect. These also did not stop a cockerel from flogging, instead egged him on.

I quit following the pack, so to speak, and started doing things my way. Last group of 14 cockerels and their female hatchmates received equal treatment, with wonderful results. Hand feeding and affectionate socialization worked wonders. Today, 6 are model young men. (before creating confusion, only 3 of 14 attacked us....the rest were eliminated not for hostility, but rough tendencies towards the hens)

Lesson learned. Never again will I scare a cockerel.

~Alex

 

[centrarchid]

Which are the wrong "treatments"?

Anything that makes you part of the pecking order. Even the top is bad.

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

Hello,
We have a Icelandic rooster named Dippy. He was hand raised (and saved by us several times). He has been very sweet until about a week ago (he is 6 months old). He started attacking my Mom and Dad by jumping from the roosting bar feet first. He hasn’t attacked me yet as I held him far a while to show I was dominant a month or two ago. After checking on internet what we should do, we decided to show we are dominant. Mom started holding him, and I chased and held him. When I chased and held he acted very subordinate, hiding in the nest box, not crowing, running away from me. When Mom held him, it didn’t seem to make a huge difference. This morning, Mom opened the door to the chicken coop and he imidiatly ambushed her (he new it was Mom because mom is the only one who comes in the morning). We really like him, and we really want to keep him. Does anyone have suggestions on how to make him stop being agressive and to make the process safer?
Here is some more info:
He started being agressive a few days after we came back from a trip. The first time he was very agressive was a day when we came to see the chickens very late. They had food, but the water was frozen (they weren’t thirsty).
He had a dificalt hatch.
He is the only rooster we have and he is with 3 hens (all hatched by us and haddeled a lot and very sweet)
Thank you,
ThreePompoms

Hey,
Welcome to BYC.
I had the exact same issue with my old silkie rooster so we got into the rythem of carrying a rake and if he tried to attack we nudged him away and he never changed but so long as we had that we were fine

 

[333113]

I'm curious whether anyone has successfully tamed a rooster once he is already aggressive. So far my experience with probably over 100 roosters is that once they start getting aggressive they only get worse and I'm better off replacing them with a nicer individual I've had some really nice ones, though. I love it when I find a rooster that takes good care of his hens and protects them from predators, but is good around people too!

I regularly train my show roosters to be gentle, even after I acquire aggressive birds from a previous owner. Just takes a lot of care and handling. The grooming required for the shows definitely helps the process of taming them.

There are some generic things to avoid, if possible. Don't act in an aggressive way towards the roo. Dusk and dawn are predator times, so roos are naturally aggressive then. Also, some roosters - and hens - do not like the color red. Red is a danger color.

I always show or offer feed to the roos to check out, first, and let them call the hens. It's the roo's job to make sure the hens get food, so don't try to take that job over unless you want to tell the roo you are his competition.