My rooster is getting aggressive!

[chixcoop]

Hi, recently my 4 month old rooster is starting to get aggressive. I will walk outside to fill up their food, and the dominant rooster (we have 2) will bolt at me, stop in front of me, then puff up his neck feathers, and he even pecked my red crock clog once. I think that in order to establish yourself above the rooster in the pecking order you need to pick it up, but that is my problem, I cant do that! I want to , but am just too nervous! Also, he has just started mounting the hens, maybe is should wait till his rush of hormones goes down, but I want to do something before he becomes too set into his ways. I am very scared to go out there.

 

[sourland]

There are any number of threads on modifying such behavior, but in my experience they are temporary fixes. In general such a rooster will tend to revert back to his bad behavior. I would suggest getting rid of him and finding a less human aggressive rooster if indeed you need a rooster.

 

[John Roth]

I also have a aggressive rooster. But I learned just to tolerate him. Just because a rooster is aggressive. Doesn't mean he has bad behavior. They are only protecting their girls. They can't do no serious harm. But if you do have young children then it's best to remove the rooster. It's sad because on this site whenever someone says they have a mean rooster. People say kill it and what not. It's not like a aggressive dog. The roosters are only doing what they are born to do. I'm not saying you have to keep him or get rid of him. You just do what you think is best.

 

[sourland]

John generally I tend to agree with you, but I don't think roosters need to be human aggressive to be 'good' flock roosters and that they are only doing what they were bred to do. There are many instances of people being spurred and developing serious infections. A flogging to the face carries serious ramifications. It can be an inherited trait and very likely any cockerels sired by this rooster will be human aggressive. It can be selected against. In my experience game fowl roosters are the least human aggressive of any roosters. Man fighters (for readily evident reasons) have been removed from the gene pool.

 

[Folly's place]

x2! Human aggression in roosters is really a separate behavior, and needs to be eliminated from the flock, and the gene pool in your flock. It doesn't mean that he's a good flock protector, it means he's stupid, and while he's stalking the huge creatures that bring him food every day, he's not watching out for hawks and caring for his hens. Nobody is more aggressive than a game bird rooster, and they aren't generally after humans, because that trait is selected against. Mary