Need advice about our "sort of aggresive" roo

[Pathfinders]

Life is too short to put up with cock birds that are aggressive towards humans. If you only have one though, I'd suggest putting up with him until you can hatch some more, and then cull him (and any of his sons who are mean, aggression is a heritable trait.)

The only time I kept a mean cock bird was when he was so valuable that I couldn't cull him. But once I had some of his sons, he made lovely soup.

 

[Chickens R Us]

I have a broom that I jokingly named Chicken Hawk, the roo is afraid of him.

 

[Mrs. K]

do be aware, that if he is attacking or starting to attack you, that is your warning, most often it will get worse. If you want to risk it, that is your choice, but be VERY WARY of letting other people near your hens. Especially children.

People give lots of reasons to keep an aggressive roo, but really if it is the roo or a child's face, what is the decision?

MrsK

 

[DebFred]

Hi All. I don't have chickens yet. We will this spring. Had them once and loved it. Looking forward to getting them full time now.

The reason I am chiming in is because when I was a kid on the farm in Kentucky, we had chickens. A lady up the road gave me a chick, and I loved that thing. It turned out to be a rooster, and he hated me when he got older. He wouldn't bother my Mom or Dad. Just me. He would chase me and flog the crap out of my legs. He got so bad that when I got off the the school bus, he would be waiting in the barnyard. There was a long lane from the road to the house. He would see the bus, drop his wing down, and take off. I would too, as fast as my scratched and flogged legs would go. He would always get me. Had huge spurs. He wouldn't do that if Mom was there, and Dad wasn't around much. But he ended up in the soup pot. Found out later that he did that because I babied him when he was little.

That being said, I won't tolerate that from any animal. And if any roos we get start. I will do what ever to try to make them stop. Or they will be dinner in the soup pot or a new visitor to freezer camp.

Deb

 

[Cknldy]

Wow! My rir roo will be 1 yr old in april. Since late summer/ early fall my kids and i fought with Mr. Peck. Husband thought it was funny til he asked for gloves Mr. Peck is a big beautiful bird. We tried flipping him upside down and carrying him. We set him down nicely. If he came back still mad we'd do it again. Didn't work for kids cuz scared to go after him just to grab him up. Getting your hands on em without getting the face flogging was hard! So enter my short handled hoe... it's what i use to flip bedding every day and the flat part is perfect at pushing back the roo. After one quite brutal session of him not wanting to back down and both of us breathing hard he finally sat down like a hen. I never take my eyes off of him but he's not bothered me again in months. Still hates the sight of the kids and flies at the fence trying to get them but they don't go in the coop anymore.

 

[Cknldy]

BTW- be it broom or hoe or stick never forget it around the roo. He's not afraid of u but the weapon that keeps him at bay. Tried that experiment by leaving the hoe outside coop and he eyeballed me right away. Could have been cuz i was nervous but if i was brave enough to get my hands on him again he'd prob be carried around.

 

[dreamcatcherarabians]

This is Rooster C with his girls. He was babied as a youngster and became VERY agressive towards everyone but me especially. I didn't want to cull him and found many excuses not to, but in the end, when he would RUN 5 acres to try to flog me it got to be too much. One day he drew blood on me, that was the end of that. Poor Rooster C, I was so mad I was going to wring his neck right then but my barn girl asked me not to do it in front of her. So, I gave him a reprieve. Somehow he got in the dog yard and they did it for me. It would have been easier on the roo if I had done it. He was such a pretty roo! but MEAN. I don't miss him.



This is Roo Man Chu, or I call him Roo Dee Roo, and he'll be a year old in Feb. I did not baby him as a young 'un. I read on here that it made them mean, so it's been pretty much hands off unless absolutely required with this guy. He's LOVELY. I kept waiting for him to turn awful but he's been just delightful. He's never once offered to drop a wing, flog, peck, rush me, NONE of that stuff. I won't comepletely turn my back on a roo, EVER, but as far as a roo can be, he's a good boy. I'll never try to make a pet of a roo again. Actually, I keep a few Cochins for pets, the rest are strictly egg layers and are pretty much left to their own devices.

 

[Hishigata]

I had a rooster who was very aggressive. He attacked any person who came near him. My Mom finally started carrying around a broom handle which she labelled "Nugget Whacker" (Nugget was the roosters name). He would have become a chicken nugget too but we gave him to neighbor instead. The first thing she did was scoop him up by his feet and let him dangle for a bit then stuffed him like a football under her arm. She has gotten along with him fine ever since.

Good luck with your rooster.

 

[Aumlet]

I have a hard time believing that handling or not handling a young roo has much to do with his eventual temperament and willingness to fight people. Chickens are pretty instinctual creatures, and so much of that comes from breeding. I'm newish to chickens but not new to animal behavior, and from what I've experienced many chicken behaviors are unrelated to how they're handled. I've made a point to have different breeds, and my chickens have very different instincts and behaviors despite being treated more or less the same. Some are friendly; some are flighty; some are combative. Why should roosters be any different?

 

[Cknldy]

Mr. Peck actually had 2 brothers with him when I got straight run chicks. All were pet on and cuddled. Once we figured out how many roos we had, I let 2 out to free range so they wouldn't fight. Dubbed "free" and "range", they were like lap dogs and the kids could pet them, pick them up and everything. My oldest could 'hypnotize' them by stroking the wattles! Mr. Peck used to be the same way til we took the other roos out. My thought is that no matter which roo we decided to leave in the coop it would have become aggressive because of the nature of roos to be alpha and protect his hens. Also, hatchery production rir's have the warning in the books about aggressiveness.