Just when you think you have everything under control......

[TropicalBabies]

I went 21 rounds tonight with a big white yearling Rooster that doesn't seem to know when he is out gunned. I let him out of a quarantine cage tonight and he was spoiling for a fight. All the roosters in the coop backed off and let me handle him. He ran at me 21 times and went down in defeat 21 times. I was not wanting to kill him so he went back into the quarantine dog crate until tomorrow night. Then we will see if he wants to sample anymore of me. The results will not change unless he learns a lesson. 21 rounds tomorrow night and back in the crate he goes. I will break him. I made a promise I intend on keeping. If I was mean I would just let the 8 big Delaware boys take care of him in the coop with him.

I've never gotten the results I wanted if I played the game or excepted the challenge of a rooster.
I now pick them up and carry them around, talk gently, give snacks and we become allies. I like my boys to happily watch my girls, not worry about me. Sometimes it takes a few weeks. Just another chicken lesson on patients. Beats trying to be the bigger meaner bird.

 

[Nomadicus]

I've never gotten the results I wanted if I played the game or excepted the challenge of a rooster.
I now pick them up and carry them around, talk gently, give snacks and we become allies. I like my boys to happily watch my girls, not worry about me. Sometimes it takes a few weeks. Just another chicken lesson on patients. Beats trying to be the bigger meaner bird.

I think his former owner may have tried that and I did to when he first came to me. He's a stubborn one I think. There may not be a one size fits all cure for mean roosters.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I think his former owner may have tried that and I did to when he first came to me. He's a stubborn one I think. There may not be a one size fits all cure for mean roosters.

Dinner lol

 

[Nomadicus]

Dinner lol

Don't need him for dinner. I promised his former owner that I would not use him for food but would give him a forever home and that I will under my terms. He will do as I need for him to do or he is in for a lonely life ahead. He will be in a coop alone where he can do no harm to any chicken or person if he can't change his ways. I wanted him for his genes but if he can't change his genes are just maybe not worth it.

 

[Callender Girl]

I understand your situation. My Cochin Bantam rooster is good at watching over his girls and alerting them to tasty treats. HOWEVER, he is an unholy terror to me. I have tried being nice, strict, frightening, carrying him like a football, spritzing water when he attacks, you name it. This is his forever home.

For a long time, I would let his girls out of the coop in the morning and leave him in the run alone. Recently, my beautiful and sweet Iowa Blue rooster died; he lived in a coop and run with two older IB hens who were used to dealing with a big boy. I moved the little jerk into Sir Henry's old coop because I didn't want Billy to live alone.

Mixed results. Pip chases his fluffy butt around; Squeak recoils in terror and screams when he comes close. I think I am seeing some progress because Billy is now allowed to perch on the same roost as Pip at night. He's not alone, no one is getting injured -- and that includes me. The Blues are the only poultry that aren't allowed out of the their coop/run because they refuse to return and I can't take the stress of having to look for them at night.

Good luck with your boy! And, I'm glad you are keeping your promise not to eat him.

 

[Maddcatter]

Don't need him for dinner. I promised his former owner that I would not use him for food but would give him a forever home and that I will under my terms. He will do as I need for him to do or he is in for a lonely life ahead. He will be in a coop alone where he can do no harm to any chicken or person if he can't change his ways. I wanted him for his genes but if he can't change his genes are just maybe not worth it.

Yeah, I have a Welsummer rooster, whom is great to my flock... But he thinks humans are the enemy... Sometimes.
I have tried making friends, and carrying him, and preening him. I'm not at the point where when he attacks my feet, I poke the back of his head, or tap his comb. Just enough that he knows it happened. I then point at him from about shoulder level so he thinks I'm a super big rooster.
... But I don't want to kill him when he's doing his job. Even though he's doing it badly towards me. Maybe I'm just a sucker.

 

[Callender Girl]

You may be a sucker, but you have company -- count me in!

 

[Nomadicus]

I feel like I'm in good company being a sucker for trying so hard a lot of the time.

 

[Nomadicus]

I understand your situation. My Cochin Bantam rooster is good at watching over his girls and alerting them to tasty treats. HOWEVER, he is an unholy terror to me. I have tried being nice, strict, frightening, carrying him like a football, spritzing water when he attacks, you name it. This is his forever home.

For a long time, I would let his girls out of the coop in the morning and leave him in the run alone. Recently, my beautiful and sweet Iowa Blue rooster died; he lived in a coop and run with two older IB hens who were used to dealing with a big boy. I moved the little jerk into Sir Henry's old coop because I didn't want Billy to live alone.

Mixed results. Pip chases his fluffy butt around; Squeak recoils in terror and screams when he comes close. I think I am seeing some progress because Billy is now allowed to perch on the same roost as Pip at night. He's not alone, no one is getting injured -- and that includes me. The Blues are the only poultry that aren't allowed out of the their coop/run because they refuse to return and I can't take the stress of having to look for them at night.

Good luck with your boy! And, I'm glad you are keeping your promise not to eat him.

I turned him out of his cage yesterday and today. Last night I found him hiding behind the feed bin. I don't know where he hid today. He just came from out of nowhere while I was putting out feed just before dark. No he sees me as his protector. There are 13 other roosters free ranging and he can't take them all on at once. He learned that on day one when released to free range. I put him back in the dog kennel at night because it is in the coop and it would be Armageddon if I wasn't there at the break of dawn to open up the coop. He will learn his place soon. At his old home he had no competition among the hens from what I gather. One day he will have 10-12 hens in a coop and run of his own if he behaves himself.