I swore I would never keep another aggressive Roo

[CSisley]

I had previously owned a RIR cross rooster that was human aggressive and he flogged my Mom twice. Shortly after that I hatched 3 more human aggressive RIR crosses. I craigslisted all four of them and ordered some hatching eggs in hopes that I could get a nice human friendly rooster. I told myself I would never again put up with human aggressive roosters and I would never again have any RIRs, hens or otherwise because they've always been ruthless. About 8 months ago I hatched one BLRW rooster and one Swedish Flower Rooster. I had high hopes for both and neither of them showed any aggression until well after they started crowing. My Swedish Flower Rooster was hard on the hens and downright rough when taking food from my hands; he wouldn't even try to miss my fingers. I kept him because he was otherwise friendly and curious. Then one day he made the mistake of trying to flog me when I reached down to pet him. I quickly put him in his place but decided that I didn't want any babies off a rooster with that kind of tendency so he got craigslisted too.

That left me with Chester, my BLRW. Chester has been a wonderful roo. He is gentle with the hens, very alert to potential threats and I get along with him great. He takes food from my hand so carefully and gently you would think he was some sort of English butler. There's just ONE problem. He doesn't like my husband and my husband doesn't like him. I thought at first my husband was being paranoid about Chester running behind him. I would say "honey, he's just following you, you're just gun shy because of the RIR roosters we had." Then one day I observed Chester's "following" and there was no mistaking it, he does not like my husband one bit! I can assure you that my husband did nothing to deserve this kind of discrimination. Chester will without fail give my husband the challenge stance every time he sees him. He'll sort of stand sideways with his head down pecking at nonexistent objects while giving my husband the stare down and when he starts to walk away Chester will immediately bolt after him until my husband stops and turns around and then he will stop dead in his tracks. Chester doesn't like my niece either but that's sort of understandable because she will constantly chase the hens around picking them up and putting them down and she's also small. He went after her one day but fortunately didn't hurt her because he doesn't have big spurs yet and hasn't perfected "the flog." He doesn't seem to mind my mom or other females but I have seen him give the stance to a male visitor. He's also tried to go after the dog who was with my husband at the time.

My husband wants permission to give Chester the boot if he goes after him. I told him he could as long as he took care to not injure Chester but I'm not sure this won't make the situation worse. I'm not sure if Chester doesn't like him because he doesn't recognize him as a boss or because he perceives him as some sort of threat. I know it's mostly my fault that I end up with roosters like this because I raise them to be so tame. I spend a lot of time with them from chicks to adulthood and I talk to them to get them to associate positive things with my voice. I just wish I could raise a tame, non human aggressive rooster, do they even exist?!

In the meantime, does anyone have suggestions for Chester that doesn't involve craigslist, the stew pot or any other cooking device?

Here's my big handsome fellow although he is much bigger and prettier now:

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

None of my 7 roosters have shown aggression, they are all different breeds, Cochin, Ameraucana, BBDA, OEGB, Jersey Giant, Minorca, Dorking. They came from breeders, and breeders never breed mean birds, I mean, you don't want to make your customers hate you!

I don't know what to say, my sister had a rooster several years ago who was super nice to her, but would always "Ninja move" me and my mom.

We just dumped him at a duck pond with some geese and ducks, (There has been many dumped mean roo's there) and he got along well with them, and was there for several days, then we never saw him again.

Sorry about the aggression problems with your roo

 

[BooBear]

Chester sounds like a ladies bird....
Roosters no matter how nice will have the tendency to test their boundaries from time to time. Kind of like they get a case of stupid out of no where. This is actually a natural part of their make up as a male chicken. Establish dominance, mate, defend turf...ect..

Your hubby needs to work with the rooster in a non-voilent way to establish his dominance over Chester. The stalk - stare down is a great technique. Look at him like he is juicy popeye's chicken (or use the glare of the Terminator) and walk at him at a steady fast pace. He should turn and try to get out of the way. You walk him until he starts to zig zag and turn to get away. (Note: dominate roosters do this to suboridante roosters all the time.)

Mess with him when he is roosting or lest expects it. Such as petting him, lightly tapping him on the head, or rubbing his waddles in front of the hens. The key here is showing him that YOU can touch him whenever and he HAS to take it as the subordinate. (Note: again dominate roosters do this to subordinate roosters all the time)

The key is establishing dominance and in turn Chester's respect for the order of things.

As you stated he made a go at your niece: this is a concern area as roosters can hurt a small child easily. You will need to make sure he is always supervised when small child is around. This could be the deal breaker for him.

My main rooster is a Black Wyandotte and is excellent most of the time. He does get the stupids and needs reminders; but, for the most part has been a good flock rooster. He is suspicous of strangers and only makes a go if he feels his girls are threatened by them. (He hates power tools of any kind and empty feed buckets. Funny he loves the bucket when it is full, but will want to flog it if it is empty.)

 

[nurse_turtle]

He may have accepted you as one of his girls and your husband as another male coming to vie for one of his females, you. I have one rooster that will flog me and members of my family from time to time. When he does this, I catch him and 'force love' him in front of the flock. I will sit with him and pet him and pull gently on his hackles, like preening him almost. I use this method as needed. So far, it works for us.

 

[CSisley]

Jersey - Chester actually is a breeder bird. The Swedish flower rooster was too. The fellow I got his egg from said he doesn't keep aggressive roosters because he has kids. He said aggressive roosters are the first on the chopping block. I believe him, but I also know that he doesn't handle his chickens like I do. I know very few people that handle chickens to the extent I do; not that it's better but I just like very tame, run to greet me, jump on my lap kind of chickens; my personal preference.They have no fear of me but that kind of upbringing can introduce rooster problems that otherwise wouldn't be there.

BooBear - Great advice, I'll see about getting my husband to try those things. "Mess with him when he is roosting or lest expects it. Such as petting him, lightly tapping him on the head, or rubbing his waddles in front of the hens." This is something I do with Chester on a regular basis. I kind of force my love on him; I'll snatch him off the ground when he least expects it and will rub his head and waddles. He acts like he doesn't like it, I can almost here the "Not in front of the hens!" but I swear he secretly does.
"As you stated he made a go at your niece: this is a concern area as roosters can hurt a small child easily. You will need to make sure he is always supervised when small child is around. This could be the deal breaker for him." I agree, I wouldn't have left her alone with him but I wasn't there. My Mom was in the near vicinity but not right next to my niece when it happened. She didn't know he could be dangerous but she'll know better for next visit. Fortunately it didn't phase my niece at all, she didn't even realize she was being attacked because he hasn't perfected his ninja skills. She loves my chickens, she'll just have to enjoy them when someone is right with her.

nurse - I thought about this possibility but I'm definitely not on hen level. Chester definitely has respect for me that isn't akin to my being a hen. Some of the RIR roosters I had thought I was a hen and would try to mount my feet, if you don't think that was annoying and painful! I definitely do the "force love" technique with Chester; it just sounds wrong but I think it helps.