I LIKE my Rooster

[igorsMistress]

@cutiepie960 I would try either waiting until she's not looking to take her egg or lock her in a coop for a while and hope she will still lay there when you let her out. What else can you do but hope for the best? She's either going to stay feral or come around.

 

[K.Riggs]

Here are my two roosters They are brothers. The white is dominant, he won the couple of fights they had when they were first maturing. They don't really challange each other anymore. The white one does kick his brother off the hens if he tries to mate them. Sometimes he gets to if boss man is distracted having a dust bath up the yard or something. Does anyone know what breed they are? I know their mother is Araucana as I have her too, but they are clearly mutts.. Any guesses?

 

[igorsMistress]

Both boys are pretty, really like the black and yellow!

 

[K.Riggs]

Both boys are pretty, really like the black and yellow!

I do too, he is pretty unusual, barely has a comb and a short back end more like the rumpless Araucana.

 

[Krazyquilts]

I kinda tell them, you are the floor manager and I wont tell you how to do your job, but just remember, I am the CEO and if I let you go, if might not be good for you!

I like that! I think that describes my relationship with my roosters, too. I don't bother them, they don't bother me.

 

[Elyrian1]

News on the rooster drama, haha. Junior got uppity with Hubby yesterday. Hubby likes to go cuddle the girls (funniest thing, grown man cuddling a chicken, ha!) and the newest girls like to squawk a bit still when you pick them up. My cockerel decided he didn't like that. Junior jumped at him, Hubby put his hand up and somehow stopped the rooster in mid air. Junior dropped back to the ground looking incredibly disappointed and still ornery. I told him put his hand on the rooster's back and press down gently and nab the back of his neck between thumb and forefinger. Mind you none of this was done in such a way to hurt the bird, we are gentle with our birds. Junior settled right down. I toted him around for a while after that just to make sure he was settled and I didn't have a lick of trouble out of him for the rest of the evening.

I compared them to dogs... in that you have to establish dominance and expect obedience, and Hubby thought I was crazy at first until I pointed out both animals are pack/flock animals where males tend to be dominant. After that he started nodding. Guess he thought they were too stupid to have that sort of dominance functionality.

 

[Krazyquilts]

I'm new to chickens - until about two months ago we had only ducks but we bought a 50 acre farm this summer so now we've added guineas, turkeys, and chickens including a laying flock of 7 Golden Comet hens and two black Austrolorp roosters. I've been told that the roosters are about one year old and 2-3 years old, so definitely fully established adults. The lady we bought the laying flock from warned us that the roosters were "aggressive" but they've been perfectly polite gentlemen to me and my husband, even when we were catching hens in the coop. They seem to take great care of the hens and watch over them while foraging. I treat them kinda like I do my dogs (2 Yorkshire Terriers): if you're in my way, you need to scoot, and just like with my dogs I talk to the roosters (and the rest of the poultry) telling them how pretty they are, what clever "insert-species-and-sex-here" they are, what a good job they are doing, and isn't it a nice day out, etc. The roosters and laying flock have already figured out that I am "The Bringer of Tastey Treats" (damaged produce from a friend's market farm) and come right over when I start tossing it to them.

My husband usually gathers the eggs (because the camper-coop the flock came in is nasty and with everything else going on we haven't been able to clean it yet) but I gather eggs at least a couple times a week and we both feed and water equally. I'm usually the one who lets them out of their coop in the morning and I'm the one who checks on "Ms. Broody" and her eggs - my big tough husband is afraid of her because she "growls" at him lol.

Our in-town neighbors from before we moved to the farm love our farm and come out whenever they can, even before we moved in to the farm, and I'd told them to help themselves to the eggs whenever they wanted. Apparently when the husband gathered eggs, the roosters simultaneously attacked him from opposite sides! Maybe because he doesn't feed them or anything and they don't recognize him as having the proper clearance?

 

[igorsMistress]

Could be your friends demeanour around them, he might step around rather than through, that kind of thing. I don't know about the stranger part...maybe someone else will chime in.

 

[Chickassan]

I think sometimes chickens just don't like certain people. People are like that so I don't see why chickens wouldn't be.

 

[Elyrian1]

I'm a firm believer that animals can sense fear/weakness/uncertainty. Also believe some animals don't like certain people as well... My Mom's black lab is that way about certain visitors to her neighbor's house. Hates some people, loves others. In his case, it's a learned response based on her unspoken, projected emotional reactions. Amazing really.