My rooster named satan, I mean Rocky....questions?

[festivefeet]

Well, I have a rooster (Easter Egger) who is about 4 months old. He started crowing about three days ago. Two days ago he turned into satan, I mean he got aggressive. He was very docile and nice up until that point. My little girl was able to pick him up and carry him around. Now we are afraid of him. I don't know what happened, it was like the flip of a switch. He is now very territorial and will follow us as we walk outside the run. If we go in the run, he will try to attack. It is very scary!

Is there something we can do about this? He is not staying around if he continues to act like this. I have an almost 4 yr old who loves her chickens and I am not going to put her at risk of getting hurt while visiting the chickens inside the run.

Any opinions or info is appreciated.

Thanks.
J.

 

[nivtup]

My experience is that there is only one way out............ Dinner.

 

[jqs birds]

I have been told if you pick him up by the legs and let his head hang down, and walk around with him that way for 10 -15 minutes it will show him who is boss and he will stop.
It is worth a try.
Or I find a nice BBQ grill fixes all problems with mean roosters.

 

[Southernbelle]

I was in your shoes once. In this case I didn't raise him, I bought him when he was 5 months old and he was raised by a sweet older lady. He was so tame and friendly, but one day out of nowhere he started attacking my legs and flogging me every time my back was turned. Fortunately, he was only a bantum, so he didn't hurt me and I was able to straighten him out.

Your roo needs to respect you and recognize you as the top roo. You need to establish that you're the dominant one. Rooster Red has some great tips on his BYC page and so does gritsar. I'll see if I can post the links.

I don't cuddle and tame my young roos that I raise so that they grow up a little afraid of me and respect me. Haven't had a problem since.

Hope this gets better, if not, he may just have to be culled.

 

[mamaKate]

Hanging him upside down can be dangerous to the rooster. Check out Roosterred's page on taming roosters. With a 4 year old, though, you're probably better off to re-home or cull.

 

[CarriBrown]

Quote:
Send him to freezer camp. Your daughter's safety is much more important than him!

 

[Southernbelle]

Here's gritsar's link:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=4810

Rooster-Red's link

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2588-Roo_behavior

Those should help!

 

[19hhbelgian]

Well, you can stop him from being aggressive towards you, but that doesn't mean he won't be mean to your daughter

It's a dominance issue, and I find that these things need to be dealt with on an individual basis. Picking him up and holding him by his feet may help, but I've also found that simply picking them up and carrying them around, especially when they are trying to be aggressive, knocks their ego down a bit. Hope you can find a solution with out having to have a chicken dinner!

 

[Davaroo]

Hey, its what they do when they get the hormones flowing.

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They can no more help themselves as you can change them. You may be able to to teach him not to go near you, but it may be a tenuous truce with that sort of bird. Some others can be around people and not cause the slightest bother, so it's an individual thing.

I'm of the opinion, too, that young children should not be around a sexually mature male chicken when there are hens about. We were kept away from the breeding males on the farm, when I was a kid. The yard scrubs and 'volunteers' we could play with, but the breed flock was hands off.

There's an odd paradox at work here. When a tiger mauls Sigfried, we feel sorry for the poor beast. Then we "get us some chickens" - and when our own cockerel flogs us our our kids, we want to roast him for dinner.

The simple answer is to give him a wide berth and keep cocks and children separate. But that's me, and we're not often interested in simple.

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All "expert" opinions aside, it is you who has to live with him. You strike the balance that works for you or be rid of him. Welcome to the world of chickens.

 

[TXmom]

Here's everything you need to know about what to do when you rooster becomes posessed: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2588-Roo_behavior
Good luck. It gave us confidence to go out and handle our roos when they "grew up".