This bothers me on a bunch of levels. You are putting yourself and your children at risk because you don't understand chicken law. Chicken law is simple. Either the rooster is boss or you are boss. The way he proves he is boss is by attacking you and if you run, he is boss. My 5 year old son came in from the yard crying and shaking because a young rooster had flogged him. He had several scrapes and scratches on his arms and head. I took him back outside and the rooster promptly ran at him to flog him again. I drop kicked the rooster 40 feet across the yard, then told my son to run over and kick him as many times as he could while the rooster was still stunned. He kicked the rooster 5 or 6 times before the rooster managed to get up and run away. The next 3 times my son went outside to play, I told him to make a point of running at the rooster and trying to kick him. The rooster ran away because my son was practicing chicken law. My son was dominant and the rooster knew it. This happens regularly with chickens. A young rooster attacked me a few years ago. I got a 5 gallon bucket and whacked the rooster with it three times until he ran and hid. He never did it again because I made a point of showing him I was boss.
To answer another of your questions, chickens recognize people by patterns. If you are blue on the bottom and gray on top, they know you as blue/gray. Change to a red shirt and now you are blue/red and they don't recognize you. After several months of wearing different clothes, they eventually get used to the idea that your colors change but it is still you. But in this case, the problem is not that you changed clothes, it is that you don't understand chicken law.
Please note, a lot of people have trouble with this because they want to think of a chicken like a dog or a cat. Chickens are NOT dogs or cats. They instinctively understand dominance and they will always try to prove they are dominant. It is up to you to understand that the only way to protect yourself and your children is to prove to the rooster that YOU are dominant.
This reminds me of a woman who had to carry a broom any time she went out in her own yard because the rooster had made her run and knew he was boss. She used the broom to fend off the rooster. If she had instead whacked the fool soup out of the rooster and then whacked him several more times until he ran, he would have understood that she was boss and never attacked her again.
To answer another of your questions, chickens recognize people by patterns. If you are blue on the bottom and gray on top, they know you as blue/gray. Change to a red shirt and now you are blue/red and they don't recognize you. After several months of wearing different clothes, they eventually get used to the idea that your colors change but it is still you. But in this case, the problem is not that you changed clothes, it is that you don't understand chicken law.
Please note, a lot of people have trouble with this because they want to think of a chicken like a dog or a cat. Chickens are NOT dogs or cats. They instinctively understand dominance and they will always try to prove they are dominant. It is up to you to understand that the only way to protect yourself and your children is to prove to the rooster that YOU are dominant.
This reminds me of a woman who had to carry a broom any time she went out in her own yard because the rooster had made her run and knew he was boss. She used the broom to fend off the rooster. If she had instead whacked the fool soup out of the rooster and then whacked him several more times until he ran, he would have understood that she was boss and never attacked her again.
). I've tried everything I've ever read to help them overcome human aggression, with the exception of letting them attack me and not reacting in any way because some of them have ridiculously long spurs or hitting/kicking any kind of aggressive behavior towards them because I think there's a huge difference in fear vs respect. I think a respectful working relationship is important with my roosters. Nothing has changed their aggressive behavior, at all. In my opinion (and obviously there are lots of opinions out there) there are so many factors in aggressive cocks, but the main ones are the individual bird and how you act around it while it's figuring out the dynamics of the flock.
