My rooster keeps attacking me

[Allymcc1999]

My family has 3 roosters and 7 hens. We recently incubated some of our hen’s eggs which hatched into the 2 new roosters. Our main rooster his name is Sunny. The two new ones are Lyla and Cami, they are angles, so sweet and always come over and let us hold them. Sunny has always been aggressive (he never liked to be held), but recently he has started attacking me and my mom whenever we are in the coop. We can just be standing near him or the asking past to change feed/water or pet the goats and he’ll come and attack us. He now knows to attack me above my boots, where his kicks will actually hurt. I’ve tried picking him up and petting him. It’s always a fight to pick him up, chasing cornering, etc. Today I tried to pick him up, which I did after a while. I was holding him and he’d peck my hand, which he usually does. Today he actually pecked my face and I now have 3 cuts on my lip. I was holding him on my side when it happened. I have no clue what to do now. Is it even possible to become friends with him now? How do I handle him?

 

[Folly's place]

He's not likely to reform!'@Beekissed, @BantyChooks , and @Shadrach all have good articles about roosters, worth reading.
He's dangerous, and needs to be gone, before he manages to really hurt one of you. If any children or visitors are involved, he needs to be gone ASAP.
And no bird gets near my face or eyeballs!!!
Mary

 

[Ursuline Chick]

A rooster is never your friend, he is the head of your flock and by trying to make him a lap chicken when he was with you you, he now thinks you and your mom are part of his flock. As a part of his flock you must obey him or he will make you obey him.
You have not said how old he is, so you may be able to fix the situation by changing the way you handle the relationship. There are many articles on this site, I would read through and try the one that you think will work best for you, otherwise you will have to get rid of him before he seriously hurts you or your mom.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

He is about 3 years old. Thank you for the advice I’ll check out the articles.

Oh, I was hoping he was still a young cockerel. 3 is kinda old to start making changes, sorry, I know this must be hard on you, but I would hate to see or anyone else hurt.

 

[nuthatched]

You have 5 roosters to 7 hens, that's 5 too many.
Your hens will thank you, they are going to get mated to death or the roosters will kill each other.
Cull the mean one, send the others away.

 

[Studabird]

How old are the other Roosters? If they are young and just starting to do rooster things he maybe trying to assert dominance on everything in sight. If you really like your rooster I would separate all the other roosters into a bachelor pen and see if he calms down to his usual self. If that doesn’t work well you have already probably heard enough culling comments.

 

[Disintegration]

My family has 3 roosters and 7 hens. We recently incubated some of our hen’s eggs which hatched into the 2 new roosters. Our main rooster his name is Sunny. The two new ones are Lyla and Cami, they are angles, so sweet and always come over and let us hold them. Sunny has always been aggressive (he never liked to be held), but recently he has started attacking me and my mom whenever we are in the coop. We can just be standing near him or the asking past to change feed/water or pet the goats and he’ll come and attack us. He now knows to attack me above my boots, where his kicks will actually hurt. I’ve tried picking him up and petting him. It’s always a fight to pick him up, chasing cornering, etc. Today I tried to pick him up, which I did after a while. I was holding him and he’d peck my hand, which he usually does. Today he actually pecked my face and I now have 3 cuts on my lip. I was holding him on my side when it happened. I have no clue what to do now. Is it even possible to become friends with him now? How do I handle him?

Considering that you said he's three years old, I doubt that there's going to be any chance he'll become less aggressive. I would reccomend re-homing him to someone who's willing to deal with him. Someone in your area might be looking for a more aggressive rooster that will protect their hens well.

Also, I don't want to completely police you on this, but 3 roosters to 7 hens isn't the best ratio. It can be dangerous to have more than 1 rooster if you have less than 10 hens.

Like some of the previous replies said, you could make a separate coop for the roosters to live together in, so they don't hurt your hens. Or, you could pick your favorite roo and get rid of the other two.

 

[McChooky]

Wouldn’t that effect the dynamic? Wouldn’t the hens feel vulnerable and what if he bullies the other two roosters? I’m scared of the fighting.

A bachelor pad is a separate coop and run designed to separate any extra or aggressive roosters from your laying hens. This allows you to manage your flock without being attacked and prevents any serious fighting between roosters.The hens highest in the pecking order will alert the flock to danger if there is no rooster . If you add one rooster to a flock it will change the dynamics of your flock. Roosters are most aggressive in a flock of hens.The more roosters you have with the hens the more aggressive they typically become...If you remove the roosters the hens will become less stressed. Roosters do rule the coop.They escort their favorite hens to and from the nest boxes.They pick the spot they want them to lay and sometimes lay in the nest to convince them its the safest place to lay.If that doesn't work sometimes they'll get in the nest with the hen to "protect " them and crowd them out. Any effort you make to pet on the hens will make him act worse. If you are "perceived" as a threat he'll attack you for (no apparent reason). His job is to keep everything away from the hens that could harm them-thats his job.Mean roosters take it to a different level.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

The younger two are about 4-6 months old. When we separate them will they be separated all the time or only at night when they sleep?

Nobody really answered this question for you but you have probably figured it out by now. If you are going to separate them, you need to keep them separate all the time. Otherwise you would have the logistics of trying to round them up and put them in the appropriare pens morning and evening, and what a fiasco THAT would be! You'd just need a bachelor pen where the boys live together all the time, away from the girls. But why? What use are they to you? You'd just be feeding them for no good reason. Better to rehome* all three, or rehome two and pick one to keep that you and the hens can live with.

*Rehome or put to other good use. My feeling is, if I'm going to eat chicken (and I do), I'd rather eat home-grown, healthy birds I raised myself.

 

[Folly's place]

The OP definitely has too many roosters!