Is aggression in roosters genetic?

Are these "teen" roos? Probably just feeling their oats!

See Rooster-Red's article on "training" roos at https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2588-Roo_behavior

Good Luck!!!

Cindy

 

Some breeds of roosters seem to be more agressive than others; even within the breeds, the chickens personalities will be different. Just like people!
However, many roosters go through an agression phase; it seems to come with the hormones of 'teenagers'. He may calm down in a few months. Now is the time to demonstrate who's the head rooster in the family. Don't put up with any shenanigans. Grab him and carry him about if you can. Dump water on him, or use a hose. Sometimes a good swift kick to the behind will help tremendously. Nothing to hurt him, but to obviously move him from one end of the yard to the other.

Carla

 

Since certain breeds can have more of a tendency toward aggressive roosters I would say part of it is genetic. You increase your chances of getting aggressive animals if you breed aggressive animals. However that's not a gurantee. Lots of other things go into it and from the same breeding you can sometimes get 1 very calm, tame, easy to handle animal and 1 very dangerous, aggressive, flighty animal. You don't really know how much of it is genetic until you have many offspring from that pairing or closely related lines to compare.

 

I had a BR rooster that was very aggressive when he was a "teenager". But I have trained him and he is quite calm but still retains that "tough" attitude.

To answer your question, I think it is a combination of genetics and how they learn when they are young.

 

I have a bantam RIR and a buff orpington rooster that were going to be killed in December. I needed company (for warmth) for my lonely hen so brought them home. They are both the sweetest, most gentle birds! My hen is tougher. I think the little RIR is falling in love with me though, so I should probably find him a girlfriend pretty quickly!

 

I noticed this when we got our first batch of chicks. We got all different kinds of roosters, but some were more docile than others. I think a big part is how you have treated them as little chicks because we noticed that the ones we held a lot as youngsters were more docile than the ones we didn't hold as much.

 

We got 2 EE roosters as the free bird with on order deal from Mcmurray hatchery. They were both terrible! The first one I couldnt open the door to feed them without a shovel to push him away. Then we got the other 1 and some how they got together and he killed the first one. Then one day he got out in the barn and attacked the vet who happened to be there vaccinating calves. We made chicken soup and no more EE roosters. We handled them alot of babies as the other chicks we ordered were cornish X so they were the unique ones.

 

Once a man fighter always a man fighter.

 

Quote:I would say instinctual which would make it genetic.

When you say cull away from your flock are you talking about a breeding program? If so it would probably take many generations to do so. Some of it may even come from the females but not exhibited in females so much as in the males.