Mean Roos and what do do with them.

[Brindlebtch]

Too many roos with nice temperaments to keep a mean one.

 

[txchickie]

Roosters around my house get one chance and that's it. Bye bye rooster.

I have a sweet sweet BCM roo that's 2 years old and is puppy dog gentle. Good roosters do exist.

 

[halo]

I dont think meanness, or good temperments in a rooster, is learned behavior. If they are mean, they are mean. If they are good tempered, they are good tempered. I dont give a rooster even one chance. If they come after me, they are dog food. I now have 2 plymouth rocks, one marans, and one Ameraucana rooster, and not one has given even the slightest aggressive move towards me. Not one, not once.

And thats the way it has got to be here.

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
Totally agree. Around here, if you bite and twist then I grab the neck and twist back. Quick as that. My breeds of choice are supposed to be of gentle temperament, and I tolerate no meanness at all. I don't wait until they're eating size because the meanness usually shows itself early and I won't waste the feed and space letting them grow up.
My DH's favorite saying is , "Worm's gotta eat too!"

As a result of my policy I have very well-bahaved roosters. I have placed many roos in homes where they watch TV on a little kid's lap after school

 

[EM Squared Farms 2]

Quote:
I have tried them all and they work, at least for them to stop attacking YOU. That is what they do to other roosters to show their dominance. In the few mean roosters I've had 2 of them the bending of the head worked immediately they never attacked me again. One the bending of the head, like you said was temporary but the laying on the back I did 7 months ago and he has not attacked me since, he actually runs away whenever he sees me. I just wanted to give advice for some of you that refuse to kill chickens or have a VERY good show quality roo that is mean. Sometimes you make chicken stew because they are impossible situations but sometimes you can transform a mean one to one that is scared to death of you or occasionally very friendly. In some cases roos hate some people and love others. Also look at it from a roos point of view. Something giant is coming towards him and it could kill him or his hens(Roosters are usually VERY protective of hens) so he tries to scare you away. Roosters are usually the ones dead when a predator strikes because they are protecting the hens. Thank you all for your post I learned some new things. If it looks like I am being argumentative then I apologize because I don't mean to be.

 

[EM Squared Farms 2]

Quote:
Good point but some roos CAN be turned nice.

 

[waterchicken]

I had a mean Rhode Island Red named Red King (Dubbed Red by my little sister, and I added King), he charged my dad, dad whacked him in the head with a board

. After that he kept chasing our ducks out of their pond, sat in it for hours at a time

. Well, funny thing is we had a more dominate roo (White King.)

Poor thing.

 

[Kev]

Quote:
About right to me.

Good examples: some production bred lines of RIR roosters are notorious for being very aggressive and "coming back at you" no matter how they are handled. It's because they were bred for production, temperament of the roos is not that much of a factor.. so the aggression gets carried along in the breeding OR it happens that maybe for some lines, high production comes in hand with aggression in roosters. "Manfighters" in cockfighting stock are considered undesirable, and are often culled out so many of their birds actually are tame/friendly with people, but still have total urge to kill each other. No training needed.

Personally I think the "problem" here are the low to mid range aggression roosters. The same rooster handled or raised in different situations could turn out aggressive if raised super tame- it has no fear at all of people. Yet this same rooster if raised by hens and not tamed, might never attack people. So you have people advising not to raise cockerels super tame, others don't see it happening with theirs, etc.

OR.. if they do attack people, some of them will be 'mild' enough to be deterred for good by various techniques. I don't think the technique itself matters very much as long as the reaction is immediate and not what the rooster instinctually expects. Being kicked across the yard, getting hosed, picked up and petted, picked up and carried around by the feet probably all in theory work on those low-mid range roos, as in it "messes" with the rooster's instinct programming for a fight. Some roos will never again try after just one or two of those treatments.. but mid to high have the chance of eventually getting worked up to try again or instead set target on someone else. Those roosters that attack again after two or three treatments seem to have a high chance of being repeat attackers, with months in between. With those sorts, it REALLY is not worth keeping if there are small children or for someone who prefers a rooster not attack at all.

Bottom line... mistake to think aggression is either/or and that all roosters are the same. Some will be 'curable', some really will not be curable, short of the stew pot.