My "pride and joy" rooster is turning aggressive....

[cjwaldon]

How long does adolescence last and the hormones to level out?

 

[Avalon1984]

Quote:
I will think about it BooBear but honestly, I train horses for a living and I have cats as pets. My chickens are not pets. The rooster is only there to keep the hens happy, create some offspring and look pretty. If something were to happen to him, I have a younger one lined up to take the spot. The hens lay eggs for me and the roosters provide meat. I barely ever keep a chicken for more than 2 years unless it is really special and he is only special in that he looks neat. But he has never been a 100% friendly bird. I have a few roosters 2 years and older that never went through anything like that or an 'ugly hormone phase' and it is not something I will tolerate. I have a full time job and am trying to run a farm on the side, there isn't enough time left in the end of the day to try and lay ground manners down for an uppidy rooster when I can spend my time with the nice ones and not having to worry about a spur up my leg. Not to mention, as I said earlier, I have people stop by with young children and the kids love to interact with the chickens (I always make sure they are not rough or chase chickens). I don't feel like having to go through a training course with the kid on how to act around the rooster so that they don't get hurt.

For many here chickens are pets and they will do anything to resolve a situation like that. I can respect that and appreciate their efforts. However, those are farm animals and although I voice my frustration in having to kill such a pretty rooster, in the end, he is just a chicken to me, not a pet. Everybody has their own ways of dealing with a situation like that. I respect yours, please respect mine as well since the decision has been made already.

 

[Jubilee1111]

Hi Avalon1984... Sorry to hear you're going through this. You have my utmost sympathy!

I have trained dogs since 1994 and prior to that trained and showed horses in AQHA. Even my cat sits on command

Last year when my beautiful BO roo started this, I worked for months trying to train him out of it. I didn't work. He got worse and worse until I just had to get rid of him. Even in his new environment, which was a small farm with livestock, with no hens to protect or lord over, he would jump the fence and go attack the neighbor lady.

Some roos are just a-holes. I have a new BO roo that has a grand temperament, takes care of his girls but absolutely defers to my authority. There are too many nice roos to deal with one that has a temperament problem. And as you know, given your career... temperament has a genetic component and if you allow him to reproduce, you'll probably just have more like him in the future.

 

[ChickenMack]

Avalon- I feel your pain. I had a three year old RIR roo- he was sooooo handsome and really quite mellow and then one day....POW he attacked my daughter and pecked a large hole in her arm. Darn bird. So, he went to the butcher. I posted on here to get others feedback and the consensus pretty much was to butcher. I am so sorry that you have to cull your roo- if only we could train them not to attack.

 

[Avalon1984]

Quote:
Jubilee, thank you for your kind words. You are right about temperament and with my horses, I will only breed well tempered and well mannered horses. It should be the same with my chickens. My farm is a refuge for “city” people that want to experience the joy of being around animals. Some of the kids coming out have never seen or touched a life chicken. It warms my heart to see them sit in the chicken pen and playing with everybody. This thing with this roo is just really frustrating to me. I could even see it in my hubbys eyes after he got flocked. It is just not a safe environment and I have too many beautiful and friendly birds to replace this guy. I do have a heart for animals but I am also responsible for the safety of my husband and anybody that enters the farm. I had a prized stud colt a few years ago, people wanted to purchase him for a lot of money and I had breeding contracts signed a year before he would be ready. But once the hormones kicked in, he had this great idea that I was his mate and my husband was competition. No training was helping that and both, his sire and dam were kind and respectful animals. He even bit him in the shoulder during round pen training. Well, Axel was fixed 48hrs later and all my contracts were gone. Some people tried to stop me but I told them that I would never, ever sell of an animal that I knew had an aggression/dominance problem. And on the bright side, he has turned into an amazing gelding that I wouldn’t sell for a million bucks. Well, maybe a million, but nothing less.

 

[Avalon1984]

Quote:
I hear you. For me safety always comes first. My horses weigh a ton each (drafts) and once you get stepped on by one of them it gives you a great new sense for the importance of ground manners. It is the same with chickens. I don't want anybody to get hurt and neither will I enter the pen and having to feel like I need to constantly look over my shoulder. No time or patience for that. I will give his carcass to a family in need that I know of so that something good came out of something bad.

 

[Mrsfoote]

Okay, So here is my two cents. I just rehomed 3 roosters. Not for any other reason other than i'm in the city and i'm pushing it with my two. Thus being said I've had 8 roosters under my belt in the barely two years owning chickens. So I by no means am an expert. My main Roo is a 10lb Buff Brahma Rooster who isn't even fully mature, he is coming into his sexual prime right now and goes after everything....EXCEPT humans. I love my roosters, they allow me to hold them, but I am the Alpha, always have been since they were chicks.

My meanest rooster to date, with a second as back up...my Silkies.

The best advice I have for you now that he is going into the beak of his hormones. Wait it out.BUT you need to be assertive. When My second roo does something the girls don't like you better believe my Brahma tunes him up...usually humiliating him in front of the girls .YOU need to be the head roo, when he does something you don't like humiliate him in front of the ladies, same thing if you catch him roughly mounting a girl. I knock them off until they can learn to be respectful.

My roo tries to Flog me I have a pecking stick, I follow him around the yard and peck him. My silkie bruised my foot...bless his little chicken heart... I chased him around the yard...he was screaming I was swearing the girls just cackled...I got the last say in...pecked him repeatedly with my finger and held him down until he could behave himself...never had a problem after that.

I have two tiny kids... a two and almost four year old, and small dogs....they can roam the yard with the boys free and the roosters wont even look at them funny. It can be done, if not...make him soup. No room for mean roo's with so many sweet hearts around.