Is this typical for cockerels?

[alterbentzion]

This summer we raised chickens for the first time. In May, our sixth grader brought home three newly-hatched chicks: two Buff Orpingtons, which turned out to be male, and a female RIR. I had to do a lot of the setup work (designing a coop in the space under a play structure and cutting the lumber, making a feeder and a water bucket) and I often would hand-feed them treats, but four of our boys, ages 5-12, did a lot of the hands-on care, including letting them out of the coop, putting them back in the evening, putting out scratch, retrieving them from neighbors' yards, etc.

At exactly 18 weeks, the BO's started crowing in earnest - and they started attacking me! If I'd step out of the house, they'd first do that thing where they stand a few feet away and look at me sidelong, then they'd lunge at my ankles and follow me, pecking/snipping the whole time, across the front yard and into the street, as I tried to get to the car. Offering them scratch made little difference; they'd peck at it once or twice, then resume their assault. Kicking them away (okay, lifting them with my feet and tossing them) didn't make much of a difference. They did peck just a bit at some of our kids' friends and the toddlers my wife watches during the day, but my boys were able to hold them and carry them just as easily as they always had. The attached photo was taken the day we got rid of the cockerels, after a week of aggressive behavior; that's my kindergartner, who wasn't the least bit afraid of them.

We ended up serving the cockerels for dinner, and a friend offered to take the pullet so she wouldn't be lonely.

Was our chickens' behavior typical? Was there something I could/should have done to modify/moderate their aggression? The kids would like to try again next spring, and I'd like to be prepared. Thanks!

 

[nuthatched]

Treating cockerels as pets- holding, petting, treating etc can make aggression inclined cockerels human aggressive. They don't have any respect for you.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can read my comments in this thread. It might be interesting.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/9-month-rooster-is-showing-signs-of-aggression.1679907/

It is interesting that both of them started on you and others at 18 weeks but left the boys who had been handling them alone. Since they were attacking toddlers I agree they had to go.

About next year. How badly do you want a male? The only reason you need one is if you want to hatch eggs. Anything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preferences. I have a few myself but those are wants, not needs. Would your boys be OK if you got sexed chicks and got all girls?

Another option is to get more males next year and see what happens. You can always eat them if you need to. But it is possible one male would turn out fine. My general suggestion is to keep as few males as you can and still meet your goals. For many people that number is zero.

Good luck!

 

[RubelliteRose]

Was our chickens' behavior typical? Was there something I could/should have done to modify/moderate their aggression?

Was the behavior typical? - well, yes and no. Out of 8 males, we have only had 3 worth keeping. The rest were culled either due to human or hen aggression. All were raised the same way except the first- broody mom but quite a bit of human interaction. Of the 3, only 1 would be considered close to "pet" quality. Blue doesn't enjoy cuddling, but doesn't run away when he needs to picked up for any reason. The other 2 will run away, but once caught are fine with being held for what ever needs to be done.
Was there something you could have done? Honestly, I don't think so. We tried to train the aggression out of our first rooster, but it didn't work. We had already hatched his chicks before we culled him - 2 were culled, 2 were kept.

About next year. How badly do you want a male? The only reason you need one is if you want to hatch eggs. Anything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preferences. I have a few myself but those are wants, not needs. Would your boys be OK if you got sexed chicks and got all girls?

You absolutely did the right thing culling your cockerels, but will it bother your kids to raise new chickens knowing they may have to be culled? You may have to go through quite a few boys to find one worth keeping. If they don't mind and you really want a rooster, you do learn more with each one and can cull earlier so there is less of a chance that someone will get hurt.

 

[alterbentzion]

You can read my comments in this thread. It might be interesting.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/9-month-rooster-is-showing-signs-of-aggression.1679907/

It is interesting that both of them started on you and others at 18 weeks but left the boys who had been handling them alone. Since they were attacking toddlers I agree they had to go.

About next year. How badly do you want a male? The only reason you need one is if you want to hatch eggs. Anything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preferences. I have a few myself but those are wants, not needs. Would your boys be OK if you got sexed chicks and got all girls?

Another option is to get more males next year and see what happens. You can always eat them if you need to. But it is possible one male would turn out fine. My general suggestion is to keep as few males as you can and still meet your goals. For many people that number is zero.

Good luck!

That thread is interesting. I doubt we'll ever be able to do much multigenerational chicken-rearing on our little property.

We're open to having one rooster, if only for the safety of the hens (there are Coopers and red-tailed hawks around here) but we would have been perfectly happy if they'd all been egg-layers.

As an aside, we were concerned at one point about whether the pullet's eggs would be kosher, what with roosters around (fertilized eggs with blood spots are a no-no). But we asked our rabbi - the one who eventually slaughtered the cockerels - and he suggested refrigerating eggs as soon as we found them, so they wouldn't develop.

 

[alterbentzion]

You absolutely did the right thing culling your cockerels, but will it bother your kids to raise new chickens knowing they may have to be culled?

The boys will definitely go into it with their eyes open! Our sixth-grader, the one who'd brought the chicks home, took it the hardest. He was the only one in our family who refused to eat them. (The younger boys wanted to know which chicken they were eating!) But he did understand why we'd culled them - and why we weren't wasting two perfectly good chickens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

As an aside, we were concerned at one point about whether the pullet's eggs would be kosher, what with roosters around (fertilized eggs with blood spots are a no-no). But we asked our rabbi - the one who eventually slaughtered the cockerels - and he suggested refrigerating eggs as soon as we found them, so they wouldn't develop.

Fertility and blood spots are not related. Fertility comes from a rooster being with the flock. The blood spots come from a blood vessel opening when the yolk is released to start its journey through her internal egg making factory. That blood spot happens before the egg is fertilized if it happens at all.

I don't know what the prohibition is, the fertile part or the blood part. I suspect it is the blood. My suggestion is to break open the egg in a bowl before you mix it with anything else so you can look for the blood.

 

[alterbentzion]

I don't know what the prohibition is, the fertile part or the blood part. I suspect it is the blood. My suggestion is to break open the egg in a bowl before you mix it with anything else so you can look for the blood.

It's the blood. If we're cracking open eggs for a recipe, we check them before we use them, just to be sure. (If we're hard-boiling store-bought eggs, we rely on statistics and assume they don't have blood spots.)

 

[RubelliteRose]

It's the blood.

If this helps for next year, I have a mixed breed flock. My darker brown and olive egg layers tend to be the ones who have blood spots in their eggs. The light brown are hit and miss. The white and blue eggs rarely have blood spots. (I say rarely but I can't remember the last time I found a blood spot in a white or blue egg)
Also, if you don't need egg shaped hard boiled eggs, this method of baked "hard-boiled" eggs works for things like egg salad
https://www.saltysidedish.com/no-peel-boiled-eggs/

 

[alterbentzion]

If this helps for next year, I have a mixed breed flock. My darker brown and olive egg layers tend to be the ones who have blood spots in their eggs. The light brown are hit and miss. The white and blue eggs rarely have blood spots. (I say rarely but I can't remember the last time I found a blood spot in a white or blue egg)
Also, if you don't need egg shaped hard boiled eggs, this method of baked "hard-boiled" eggs works for things like egg salad
https://www.saltysidedish.com/no-peel-boiled-eggs/

That recipe is wild!

I know that brown eggs tend to have more "protein seeds" - little dark things, maybe 1/16" long - than white eggs. My wife has always thought that brown eggs have more blood spots, too.