My sweet Repecca turning nasty Roopecca?

[Cryss]

Ok, I guess I have to concede that Roopecca is a Male. But what I can't get over is how he is turning mean. He's always been slow footed and clumsy so he's not chasing and he's not doing any mounting. He's grabbing wings and tails and chest with his beak and not letting go. He bit me, my husband, and my daughter (she's 46, don't worry). Everyone here is shocked because she has always been the sweetheart with everyone. She sneaks up slowly, probably cuz she, erm he, can't really run, and grabs my clothes. I've loved this chook for 5 months, medicated him, babied him, fitted him with a bra, brought him inside for a shampoo and a blow dry when he became a poopsicle by not roosting. I've held him on my lap as I pet him and fed him treats.I don't want to give him up. He's a Lavender Orpington so he cost me a bit more than I want to spend on chicken dinner. His crop issues may not make him breeding material for someone looking for an LO Roo. I tried giving him a "peck". I also stamped my feet to chase him off. Tonight while I stood by waiting for everyone to go into the coop for lockdown he stood guard till the ladies all went to bed, then he stood at the top of the ramp staring at me for probably a good 5-10 minutes before making his way inside. I'm so brokenhearted and don't have rooster experience. I read so many differing opinions how to handle a roo. What to do.

 

[ChickenyChickeny]

If your rooster continues to be aggressive, you might have to keep them in a separate pen, that will keep them from attacking other chickens.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Awe.

 

[Cryss]

Strange thing is I never wanted a rooster. I gave away the only other one I had. But this one was special.

 

[azygous]

Your post cracked me up! The love of your life has turned out to be somebody you never expected. Ah, the betrayal! The unfairness of life!

Yours is a very typical, if heartbreaking, story. The little chick, so cuddly and catered to, enters puberty and the hormones have wrecked the relationship. Since this is your first experience with a cockerel, it's quite normal for the sudden flow of hormones to bring about a very unpleasant personality change.

What's going on is the hormones are filtering your cockerel's perceptions of everything. If you could get into his tiny brain, your would understand how confused and disoriented he is. He now has powerful drives and instincts that are new to him, and he doesn't trust himself let alone you.

One of the simplest pieces of advice I give people with a new cockerel is to ignore him. It makes life much easier for him and you, too. And what this does is to begin establishing mutual trust. You allow him the space to find his role in the flock, and he will learn to give you your space as flock caretaker.

Here's how you do it. Handle him as little as possible. If he's facing off with you, pretend he isn't there and walk right over him, forcing him to move out of your way. From this day forward, he will be the one to remove himself from your path, you will not move for him.

Try to ignore his crude attempts at mating. It sounds like he has a really horrible technique, and it should be good for lots of laughs watching him try to figure out how it's done. The hens aren't going to respect him and cooperate until he refines his approach, so they'll take care of themselves.

He may need disciplining from time to time if he gets the wrong idea about how to treat you. If he comes dancing up to you sideways, head tucked in,
it's not cute. It's an act of aggression. You need to reach down and scoop him up and tuck him backwards under your arm and carry him around for a bit like a football. This knocks him down a peg or two and teaches him you are superior, not him. Then release him and got back to ignoring him.

If he comes at you feet first, that's flogging and a capital crime. You need to pin him to the ground, immobilize him until he quits struggling and surrenders, then release him. Go back to ignoring him.

It takes about a year from the time a cockerel gets his hormones for him to grow into his adult role and to settle down. I have one of these budding Romeos right now. My job is made easier because his daddy does most of the discipline (and it's beautiful to behold), but I still relegate this little punk to outside duty for most of the day in order to give the hens a break from his clumsy advances. (And to save him some ass-kickings from his daddy.)

If you will take the time and patience to discipline your boy, you just might have a rooster you can be real proud of a year from now.

 

[Folly's place]

Beekissed has a very good article about managing roosters; look it up. He's being an idiot, and may be able to learn better behavior towards humans, or not. If not, it's too bad, but expensive or not, he can cause real injuries, and Urgent Care visits aren't so nice either.
Some cockerels will be wonderful polite roosters forever, and some turn into fools who attack the giants who bring food. I've had both kinds, and only keep the good guys. They get to reproduce, and the others get invited to dinner.
Mary

 

[Cryss]

You need to define what you mean by taming. Previous responses focus on aggression issues. For me taming also considers having rooster relaxed around you so he is not flighty when you move about or even handle him. My roosters and hens in general are tame enough that I can place my hand under their breast so they can step up on hand where they can then be carried about without attempting to jump off because motivated by fear. I have a lot of roosters and frequent handling is part of their keep, especially with those I use for work. Taming also involves some level of training where rooster gives a positive response to your action. The procedures I use are well vetted as done repeatedly each year with cohorts of chickens.

Flighty mature birds are simply exposed to my presence repeatedly each day over several days where they see me moving about slowly. They are often given small amounts of feed when I approach, although not every time I approach. As a result, they become habituated to my presence and movement. It usually does not take more than a couple of days before bird becomes tame enough to allow touching it. Most of the time these birds during the taming process are confined in relatively small pens at about waist height for me. It can also be done with birds in larger pens or even free-range.


Starting with chicks is easier and can be greatly facilitated by mother hen if she is tame and trained herself. This is currently my default starting point.


Regardless of starting point, you need to be slow and deliberate around the birds. Avoid staring directly at them during early stages with flighty birds.


What is your intended purpose once bird is tamed? That impacts your approach. Also need to make certain you are not talking training which is generally easy to do.

Your post cracked me up! The love of your life has turned out to be somebody you never expected. Ah, the betrayal! The unfairness of life!

Yours is a very typical, if heartbreaking, story. The little chick, so cuddly and catered to, enters puberty and the hormones have wrecked the relationship. Since this is your first experience with a cockerel, it's quite normal for the sudden flow of hormones to bring about a very unpleasant personality change.

What's going on is the hormones are filtering your cockerel's perceptions of everything. If you could get into his tiny brain, your would understand how confused and disoriented he is. He now has powerful drives and instincts that are new to him, and he doesn't trust himself let alone you.

One of the simplest pieces of advice I give people with a new cockerel is to ignore him. It makes life much easier for him and you, too. And what this does is to begin establishing mutual trust. You allow him the space to find his role in the flock, and he will learn to give you your space as flock caretaker.

Here's how you do it. Handle him as little as possible. If he's facing off with you, pretend he isn't there and walk right over him, forcing him to move out of your way. From this day forward, he will be the one to remove himself from your path, you will not move for him.

Try to ignore his crude attempts at mating. It sounds like he has a really horrible technique, and it should be good for lots of laughs watching him try to figure out how it's done. The hens aren't going to respect him and cooperate until he refines his approach, so they'll take care of themselves.

He may need disciplining from time to time if he gets the wrong idea about how to treat you. If he comes dancing up to you sideways, head tucked in,
it's not cute. It's an act of aggression. You need to reach down and scoop him up and tuck him backwards under your arm and carry him around for a bit like a football. This knocks him down a peg or two and teaches him you are superior, not him. Then release him and got back to ignoring him.

If he comes at you feet first, that's flogging and a capital crime. You need to pin him to the ground, immobilize him until he quits struggling and surrenders, then release him. Go back to ignoring him.

It takes about a year from the time a cockerel gets his hormones for him to grow into his adult role and to settle down. I have one of these budding Romeos right now. My job is made easier because his daddy does most of the discipline (and it's beautiful to behold), but I still relegate this little punk to outside duty for most of the day in order to give the hens a break from his clumsy advances. (And to save him some ass-kickings from his daddy.)

If you will take the time and patience to discipline your boy, you just might have a rooster you can be real proud of a year from now.

Here we have the perfect example of the differing opinions that confuse me, each from well respected authors. One says ignore them and don't handle them. The other says handle them often. I have handled this bird multiple times a day since he was 6 weeks old. The only thing he has to fear from me is putting medicine in his beak and adjusting his bra.

The love of your life has turned out to be somebody you never expected. Ah, the betrayal! The unfairness of life!

Yes! Men, bah, humbug! (No offense meant to human men on this forum)

 

[Cryss]

OOOPS! That was the wrong post example! I hit the wrong button. It wasn't meant to be centrachid. Here's the one I meant!

Just work with their nature and try to understand what that is, exactly. If you are wanting to know how to have a rooster that doesn't attack humans, it's a very simple thing. You treat the rooster like what he is....a 2 ft. bird. He's not an ogre or a potential meany, he's just a very simple animal with a very simple task...he owns a flock of hens and all that this implies. He acts on instinct only and doesn't plot against the humans, waiting to attack each time their back is turned, though it may seem that way...he's just doing his job as a male animal protecting his mating interests and he hasn't been taught the difference between a threat to the hens and a threat to himself. By the time you are done, he should be very aware that you are more of a threat to him than you are to his mates.

One instinct he possesses in spades and that is an instinctive fear of predators, creatures that are bigger and can kill him easily. You are one of these and you need to treat him as such. You are in control of his existence and you need to act like that...walk with confidence around him, walk towards him, move him around at your will and at any given time. Go out at night and take him off the roost, turn him on his back and examine his body, touch him all over, etc. any time you wish. When he walks too near you, reach down and touch him, make him move off. You own him, you are the food bringer, the largest predator in his world...the only roosters that challenge such a thing are those that have not been taught those facts. Most will learn it rather quickly....I've never known a single rooster that didn't learn it quickly and most with just a minimal amount of training.

Tame them? Why would you want to? Teach him and you won't have to tame him.

 

[azygous]

The one thing I'd stress in offering advice on training a young cockerel is that every bird is different. The other thing is that every human is different, and that's the other half of the equation. Your behavior and temperament will affect how your cockerel relates to you and whether he can be trained.

As an example, I have a father/son duo. The father is a three-year old Cream Legbar named Strawberry. He never required any discipline or training as a cockerel. He was a perfect gentleman from the time of his first hormone to the present. He has always smoothly removed himself from my path and he's been gentle with the hens.

On the other hand, his son Toots, also a pure Cream Legbar, is a hand full. He isn't human aggressive, which some cockerels are, but he launches himself at a hen like a minute-man missile acquiring a target, and the resulting impact is almost as shattering. So, he is managed differently than his daddy roo.

The reason many chicken keepers eat their roos is because it requires effort and commitment to training a problem roo. And not just anyone is up to the task. If you are of a timid nature, unsure of yourself in relation to your cockerel, you might as well forget it. Sell the cockerel or give him away.

Years ago, I had two cockerels, one was a timid, fearful bag of nerves, and the other was a brutal biter, drilling plugs of flesh from my hands if I got too near him. A chicken psychologist http://olychickenguy.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-03-27T00:55:00-07:00&max-results=5 who has a rooster rescue in Washington state, worked with me on training the two boys. After a year of learning rooster psychology, I managed to rehabilitate both cockerels, and they were perfect roosters thereafter.

My approach to rooster training is much different from Beekissed. But we both approach it knowing that our own individual temperament and behavior has direct bearing on how a cockerel will turn out. You begin from the premise that you are the one in control, and you must convey that to your cockerel. It's really no different from training any animal. You establish who's boss, and then proceed, taking in to consideration the individual temperament of your cockerel.

If you are confident in what your role is in controlling your flock, your cockerel should come to trust you and eventually be confident in his role protecting his flock. The problems arise, as with any animal, when boundaries are undefined and neither you nor your cockerel understands their place in the general scheme.

 

[Cryss]

Thank you aart. I am not timid but wary. That bite wasn't pleasant. I need to handle him occasionally to keep up on his crop issues and his bra. And I love the little PIA.