Mean rooster

[CMV]

I do not believe that human aggressive roos can be rehabilitated. I have tried but failed (twice). The roos in question were absolute terrors, though. They weren't just pecking at your leg, they were attempting to remove your leg at each and every contact. They didn't just attack people they attacked cars driving down the road. These two birds were exceptionally aggressive, and would attack anything that moved. One of these birds lost both feet to frostbite and still was a force to be reckoned with. He eventually was killed by a predator. I'm frankly surprised that the predator managed to take him down.

The other roo I put in a stew pot after I had to beat him off me with a stick one day. I had been using all the techniques to try to get a handle on his behavior. He just became sneakier about who and when he attacked. He could not overcome his nasty nature and tried to go through me to get to my 6 y.o. daughter. I kicked him off me 3 times, and then snapped a walking stick over his head on the fourth pass. I managed to prevent him from getting to my child, but it was a close call. He was well aware that I was the dominant figure in the yard, but that didn't stop him from attacking anyone else. And in the end it didn't stop him from attacking me to try to get to his intended target.

A human aggressive roo will always be human aggressive, and no amount of rehabilitation is going to change that. Your bird should never be trusted around children and should either remain contained at all times when the grandchildren are around, or make a one way trip into a stew pot.

Sorry you are dealing with this. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[RoosterRanch]

I have to agree that a Man fighting Rooster cannot be changed they can learn to respect you, but they will still attack a child or someone else. I realize that flies in the face of a lot of sage advice given on this forum but that is my experience. There are far too many ( I happen to have 3 I would give you) good roosters out there to spend a single minute dealing with this type of behaviour. I have a 3 yr old grandaughter who loves to gather eggs with her Paw Pa and I will NOT abide a nasty rooster based on that fact alone. Good luck

 

[Beekissed]

I think what is being described in the last few posts is a whole 'nother kettle of fish than the OPs roo biting her when she tries to pet it. It sounds like his first attempt to establish a dominance and could be easily retrained, I imagine, before he gets too big for his little britches.

Of course, a real problem roo(one of which I've never had in the past 35 years)would present a different level of intervention....I agree, if he could not be dissuaded from this overly aggressive behavior of attacking humans, no matter what method has been used to stop him, then he needs to die. Period.

I would give a bird three chances only....three strikes he is out and down for the count.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I agree that this roo's behavior doesn't qualify as the worst a roo could do. But the OP was concerned for her grandchildren, and perhaps has good cause to be careful. She may be able to keep this guy as is, and be diligent to keep him caged when the kids are around.

I think there is a fine line between acting assertively and aggressively towards a problem rooster. I think that a roo's behavior is part nature, part nurture. Some are hatched with a more aggressive temperment. But there are others who might have behaved more mannerly, but due to their handling become frightened and wary, and thus behave in a defensive & offensive way.

I don't delve too deeply into my roosters' little heads to try and prove that I'm their alpha or boss or superior. I don't stop them from mating or crowing or anything else in front of me. Instead I try to treat them with consistent kind care, so they know they can trust me to not cause them harm or alarm, that I am the Bringer of Food and Provider of Water. I don't try to handle them if it's not necessary.

Over the years there have only been a few who acted aggressively, the ones that will stalk you or run up to peck you or flog you. I refuse to keep any rooster like that anywhere except in a stew pot.

 

[Chickenaddict]

Quote:
I keep bantam cochins as well and have come across this behavior before. It won't be long before he goes after anyone and everyone, especially children. My white cochin roo was like this and now I am dealing with a mottled roo with this problem. I rehome them with full disclosure. I have no patience for mean roos here, tooo many children come to play with the birds and thats a chance I am not willing to take.

 

[Chickenaddict]

After reading some of the other responses on treating their behavior I have to say I worked with "crash" my white cochin roo for a few years on his behavior, the more I kicked him across the yard like a football the more agro he became. I tried every method possible on him and it didn't end well. I even went out in the yard armed with a pitch fork I let him run himself into a few times and that still made no difference. He even became aggressive to the hens. The final decision was made after he attacked my face, biting my nostril and ripping several layers of skin off inside and outside my nostril. When crash was about 6 weeks old is when he started with his behavior issues. When I would open their brooder door to refresh food/water he would charge at me hence the name crash. These days when I hatch chicks if the cockerels start acting like crash they are culled immediately. Crash was nothing like our first mean roo, Earl. Earl was a cuckoo marans from mcmurray. He started out like crash but toook his meaness to a whole new level. His mind set was seek and destroy! He was good with the hens but hated people. He would stalk me in the yard,we have several trees out back where the birds are. I always had a shoevl, rake or something to fend him off with when I went out there or he would shred me. I went out one day to give them some scratch and as I walked back there (approx half acre to the coop from the house) He started to stalk me. I would take a few steps and hear the sound of little chicken feet right behind me so i'd turn around to look and he would dip behind a tree so I didn't see him. I'd take a few more steps and he would get a little closer. When I reached my destination I bent down to hand feed the girls and he took that opportunity to go rambo on me. He used my hunched over back as a ramp to the back of my head where his claws and spurs acted like a paper shredder. That was it for me, he left to become dinner the next day. My point is some just can't be saved and are best in a soup pot or roasted in the oven.

 

[EmAbTo48]

My roo is a year old now, one day I went out for feeding and started hand feeding one of my hens, well he bit me! Just came up and bit! I grabbed him held him down and basically yelled (I am sure I looked like some nut) but it worked! He was 7 months old when he did this. He is now the sweetist roo ever!

I am sure its different for some roosters, but I think since I caught the behavior right away, and he learned I was boss it worked.

Good luck!

 

[triplepurpose]

Quote:
It seems to me that with birds nature plays a much more dominant role than nurture, and many people with chickens don't actually understand the "nurture" part as well as they think. There is also a school of thought out there that recommends that people NOT try to bond with their birds (especially the young males) overmuch. This isn't a problem on farms, generally, where birds spend most of their time interacting with other birds, but it can happen with people who keep small numbers of fowl more as pets and tend to spend more time engaging in more direct human/bird interaction. Apparently this is especially true of Muscovy drakes--but it also applies to roosters. The idea is that if the cockerels become so close to you while they are young that they come to think of you as their flock mate, then if they have an assertive nature, like most roosters do, they may naturally try to challenge you for dominance when they come of age and nature prompts them to it. It's not their fault, but rather the fault of the humans for not understanding how chicken politics works...

I'm glad that Sunny Side Up's "gentle touch" method works for them. I think everybody should treat their birds with respect and kindness, and not just use these comments as an excuse to kick or beat an animal out of anger. But in my experience, raising a well-behaved rooster has more to do with the young cockerels having a healthy view of you as an outsider/predator, as opposed to a flock mate, and less to do with whether they are treated with affection or not. Sunny Side makes a good point though: you don't need to spend your time trying to act like a "dominant rooster" either, because that confuses them more--better to let the chickens socialize with the other chickens, and stay out of it altogether.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I've read a lot of posts here discussing ways to manage roosters, and I just don't agree with some of them. I don't think that roosters really confuse humans with their feathered flock mates, or as competition for their hens. We try to give all our birds consistent care, moving amongst and talking to them in a way that doesn't cause them fear or alarm. There are those individuals that seem to relish handling more than the others, but all of them should tolerate being handled when necessary for particular treatment (injury, illness, or parasite prevention). I would not want to have any of them view us as a threat or anything fearsome, but simply as The People Who Provide For Us.

Right now I have a batch of dual-purpose cockerels growing up towards the table, they'll be processed at about 5 months or so. They free-range all day and don't give us any problems. There was one who was chasing my son and he's now finishing his growing in solitary confinement until he Crosses The Road.

 

[triplepurpose]

Quote:
I thinking maybe in light of Sunny's above comment that my use of the word "predator" could have been misinterpreted. I didn't mean it to imply aggression or fear or some kind of antagonism between people and chickens. Often people hold (what is in my opinion) a misguided view of "predators" and "prey" being in some kind of warlike, mutually antagonistic relationship. A notion that unfortunately many disreputable nature programs on TV do nothing to dispell, I might add. Such attitudes focus on the percieved violent nature of the actual kill itself, but ignore the rest. Actually, in nature, predators and prey exist in a kind of symbiotic relationship, where the predators help the prey by culling the weak or sickly individuals and ultimately strengthening and increasing the health of the population, and the prey help the predators, obviously, by providing food for them. The healthy relationship of humanity to chicken-kind, in a sustainable model, is no different, so that is how I tend to view it because that's what makes sense to me.

As far as I can tell, they certainly show no gratitude to me for being the Person that Provides for Them. I think that is something that people project onto chickens. I don't believe they are capable of being grateful or understanding the relationship in that way, or maybe they just don't show it--who knows? Just about all I know, or think I know, I've learned from observation. I don't know for SURE if my roosters think I'm another rooster or not--but I do know that when they see me they crow, just like they do when they see another rooster, and I also know that when I handle their hens they behave just as if another rooster were trying to mate with them. And for that matter, the hens tend to shake themselves off after I put them down, just as they do after being mounted by a rooster. I also do know that they associate my appearance with the appearance of food, but would knock me down and trample me to get to the feed trough if they could. And no matter how kindly I talk to them or how gently I handle them, there are a few in particular who are terrified of me no matter what! I still have great affection for them. But I still don't know what's really going on in their little heads... except by my own extrapolations.

Such notions are interesting but kind of overly academic. For example it sounds like Sunny and I handle our chickens pretty much the same way. I think we are just talking about different conceptions of chicken psychology here, not really debating how to handle roosters... Maybe we should all try not to "delve to deeply into" our chickens' "little heads..."

BTW, Sunny, enjoy your DP cockerels. I think that free range DP is by far the most delicious! People who haven't tried it don't know what they are missing!