Is it a mistake to tame a baby roo?

[cthrash1]

My DDs BR roo is tame and he will follow us and sit by us, we hold him daily, he gets his daily hug from my DD, he loves it. When are walking back to the pens he comes running to us and follows us the rest of the way while we talk to him. I also have a BTB Dutch roo that is my baby...I also hold him every day. when I go to the pens he flies up on the gate and crows, and he will sit there and let me pet him, lift him off the gate and carry him around. Now my DSs barnyard mix is another story...He is very sneaky and likes toes ALOT!! when I'm out there he keeps trying to sneak up on my toes, needless to say I have taken some very good advice and when he does this I grab him and hold him upside down by his legs...Then flip over the very flustered cockerel and hold him and pet him.

 

[rooster-red]

Handling him when he is young will have no effect on how he turns out later, spoil him all you want, it won't hurt a thing.

Check out my page on roo behavior, it might help.

The link is in my sig line.

 

[WriterofWords]

I hand raise all the roos, I have several who live together and get along very well. I think you can't handle them enough really, and as for spoiling them? Mine are spoiled rotten.

 

[PoultryPedia]

I had an Easter Egger I handled alot as a chick because he got sticky and needed baths, & I fell in love with him. When he got older, I think he figured I was pretty much another chicken. He'd jump up to sit beside me for petting, but also 'dance' at me and dive like I was "one of the boys" who he was also friends with but in competition with. Being handled a lot seemed to make him confident in threatening me.
We eventually did butcher him with a few other roos since he was being irksome, the roos were quarreling amongst themselves pretty unhappily, and none of them fit with our breeding plans.
If I'd known back then about picking up roos when they threaten, rather than yelling, kicking at or chasing them (as I did him when he acted up) maybe his behavior would have turned out alright toward me?? But we did have a problem with the roos creating unhappiness for each other and others and being unhappy themselves with confinement, so we did need to do something about the situation anyway. He was a cute li'l guy, though.

 

[rooster-red]

I have some baby cockerels right now that will jump/fly up onto my outstretched arm, but who knows how they will turn out once mature and mother natures programming kicks in.

It all depends on the individual roo.

 

[chickenzoo]

I have a bunch of roos that I raised and gave a lot of attention, none are mean or attack. Only one will challenge me but it all depends on my shoe color,LOL, he has a shoe fedish! If I just wear sandals- no problems. I also recieved an Ongadory roo who was very people aggressive, he would attack your legs, jump at your face and bite. I kept grabbing the little sucker and picking him up and carrying him around with me when ever he did this. After a week he quite. Now he is one of my nicest Roos and follows us around and likes the attention. I now have a few "reformed" Roos.

 

[skeeter]

the only bad part about all this is if and when you lose one,I lost my poor little buff roo to the neighbors dog 2 days ago
I always hand fed him and he would follow me around everywhere he was a great little feller,he was only 5 months old

 

[PoultryPedia]

Quote:
So sorry :aww

 

[chickenannie]

This is really helpful everyone. He is sooo cute (my little Buff roo) and always wants to play. Tonight when I came home all the adult chickens were in the coop and he was on my front porch chasing the poor cats around. He has NO fear. I had to pick him up and carry him to his coop and I'm afraid that's going to become a habit. Oh well. I guess I'll just spoil him knowing that down the road, the situation may have to change.

I almost made a house-chicken out of yet another cute little guy tonight. He was raised from day one with a turkey runt (they became best pals in a small pen by themselves). The turkey poult died today (it's on another post here) and little Brownie (his pal) has no idea how to be a chicken. Today I put him out to free-range and he just kept running after me. I could hardly bring myself to leave to go back to work. Even considered taking him to work with me, but didn't. (!!) Tonight he didn't know how to go in the roost and was clearly looking for his snuggle pal -- sitting on my shoulder snuggling under my hair. I had to make a tough decision -- take him in the house with me and make him a pet, or integrate him with the flock! Well, I ended up putting him in the chicken coop, though it's going to take a while for him to get used to it. He snuggled up to a recuperating hurt-leg chicken so for tonight at least he has a snuggle pal.

 

[leanne]

I had two roosters. Both were handled when little. Freddy became aggressive--literally chased after people. I was sad that we had to put him down, but I had no other choice other than to pen him alone--my chickens run freely during the day. The other rooster, Teddy, is a sweetheart except when one of his ladies makes a fuss, but he has never attacked anyone.