New Young Aggressive Rooster - Suggestions?

[chammer70]

I apologize in advance for the long-windedness of this post and am grateful for any helpful input. I've browsed posts on here over the years, but just had to join to seek advice.
We've had chickens for about seven years now. We were naïve with our first sweet bunch and lost eight to a nighttime raccoon slaughter. Quickly remedied that after many tears. I never wanted a rooster but was talked into "trying" one when my husband's cousin ended up with two and couldn't keep them as they live in the city limits. We added him at about 10-12 weeks of age. The hens beat him up terribly and I was often rescuing him. He grew into an absolutely stunning giant white with black Ameraucana. He was the sweetest rooster ever; never challenged us or anyone we brought into their run. My now five-year-old son and I were often in there feeding them and digging worms and fresh dirt for them to dig. We have several acres and their run is very large, bigger than most yards here in WA State. We could pick him up and he wouldn't try to hurt us in any way. Not that he didn't try to avoid me when I went to grab him. We could handle the hens and he would hardly glance our way.
We added hens periodically and for the most part he treated them well. I blew off horror stories of mean roosters, thinking they are the exception.
Then a few months ago a bobcat found its way into the run and got away with a yearling buff. I saw him after the fact, which is how I know what took her. Then two days later, he took another. We put the chickens on shutdown and revamped the run. Made it not as large and heightened the fence as well as an extra layer that went outward. We thought we were successful as we had no further incidents for a couple of months. Then about a month ago, he came back; took another yearling buff (our old girls are smart and hide well and quickly) and beat the heck out of our sweet rooster Robot. We prayed for the best and hoping it was only shock, as there was no blood but massive feathers covering the run. Then the next day he was gurgling terribly and couldn't even hold his head up. My husband took him far away from the run and put him out of his misery. A few hours later one of our hens laid down where the rooster had been laying and died. She was completely unharmed or mauled by the bobcat. Poor girl. I cried for three days over the loss of the rooster. I still tear up over him.
So I had a bug to add a rooster. Thinking it would be a good thing since so many are unwanted. We are huge into animal rescue of any sort. Though at this point it was unnecessary since we were finally forced to cover the entire area in netting. (It is so large that we didn't think it would be possible but with some input and coaching we were able to do it.) So I looked on Craislist (of course) and located two roos. One that was the spitting image of our lost one and the one I, of course, was most drawn to for that reason, and another raised in the city and the woman was desperately trying to find a home for as she had reared what ended up being four roosters that she couldn't keep. I felt bad for her and agreed to take him. I stressed the importance of needing one that was as of yet nonaggressive. I believe now she was not honest with me. No surprise there, I guess. He's a Easter Egger, if that has any significance.
So we penned up our four adult hens separately but also within the large run. Our five young three month old hens were also in a separate run within the large one. We weren't sure where we were going to put him when we brought him home. Decided to just give him the large run so he would at least be in some contact with the hens. He immediately was aggressive towards us. He's supposedly about five months old, which I believe since he's no larger than our adult hens.
So this is what has transpired in the last week since his addition:
He attacks us and/or dances for us. We've been unsure what to do. It seems every post I read has different advice from cooking him to carrying him around to kicking him. We've opted for catching him and carrying him and/or following him around until he hides or seems to "submit."
He has attacked my five-year-old son so he is too scared to go in the coop anymore, which makes me really sad as we've spent so much time in there with the hens and our now deceased rooster since my son was two years old!
We tried to introduce the last of our yearling buffs, since she is the most laid back. He IMMEDIATELY tried to mount her. She was having nothing to do with it, so they fought. We broke it up and removed her again. She puffs up and tries to peck him through the separation fencing. We introduced the last of our sexlinks, who accepted him immediately, shockingly. I removed her when it became obvious he was not going to leave her alone. Have not introduced our two old, old Araucanas. Scared to. We let the five young ones out with him and he has tried to mount them, though rarely, and he shows them food and then rips their feather our on their heads when they come to the food. Today he attacked one when she came to my husband. Outta room. What to do, please? Are there any options? I'm considering separating HIM from them. Wondering if our prior rooster was so sweet because he was beat up so often by the hens when he was young?
Thank you to anyone who reads this drawn-out post.

 

[bobbi-j]

Personally, I would not keep an aggressive rooster - especially one that has gone after my child. I wouldn't want my child to have a life-long fear or dislike of chickens because of one bad rooster. I also would not give him away or sell him. Yep, that leaves one other option - I'd eat him. Think about it - yes, you can "tame" some of them, but just because you get the rooster to not attack you, does not mean that it will not attack someone else. Like your son, or a visiting child. It's a liability in my opinion, and just not worth it. What kind of life is it for the rooster when he's constantly being chased around by you and your family until he hides? Poor thing will be living in constant fear. Separating him from the flock would also be cruel as they are flock animals. They prefer the company of other chickens. At 5 months old, I'm thinking his wanting to mount everything in sight has to to with the hormones they have at that age. He's just coming into sexual maturity and doesn't know what to do but follow his instinct to breed, breed, breed. That part may settle down in time. I don't know about the aggressiveness, though.

 

[aart]

Personally, I would not keep an aggressive rooster - especially one that has gone after my child. I wouldn't want my child to have a life-long fear or dislike of chickens because of one bad rooster. I also would not give him away or sell him. Yep, that leaves one other option - I'd eat him. Think about it - yes, you can "tame" some of them, but just because you get the rooster to not attack you, does not mean that it will not attack someone else. Like your son, or a visiting child. It's a liability in my opinion, and just not worth it. What kind of life is it for the rooster when he's constantly being chased around by you and your family until he hides? Poor thing will be living in constant fear. Separating him from the flock would also be cruel as they are flock animals. They prefer the company of other chickens. At 5 months old, I'm thinking his wanting to mount everything in sight has to to with the hormones they have at that age. He's just coming into sexual maturity and doesn't know what to do but follow his instinct to breed, breed, breed. That part may settle down in time. I don't know about the aggressiveness, though.

Ditto^^^ ......invite him for dinner.

 

[Manningjw]

Aggressiveness towards people isn't something I would tolerate. Chicken Pho or other chicken soup sounds like a good idea.

The most any of my roosters have done is flap their feathers/ruffle dance around me and that is enough for me to put them in their place. Any time he started to demonstrate this behavior I would do that, first I would pin him then I would carry him around with me while I did other things in the chicken run and yard. After a while he didn't display dominant behavior towards me anymore. Some people say using your fingers to simulate pecking on the chicken's head works to make them understand their are lower on the pecking order but I don't know if it works or not.

 

[Folly's place]

He's dangerous! He's still a sweet young thing, compared to who he will be next spring. Meanwhile, your son will either be injured, or live in fear in his own backyard. There are many lovely cockrels out there; don't keep this one! Mary

 

[centrarchid]

If you do not know how to handle roosters, then do not have them. Arrangement above is making so next generation (child) will also not know how to handle roosters. Find someone local that has well behaved roosters and watch what they (the owner not the birds) do. The business of aggressive roosters has a lot more to do with the owners than the birds but in OP's case the current bird might be more problematic because of is prior history but even that is workable.

 

[Mrs. K]

You have had your warnings! Generally it will get worse. Personally, I do believe that a rooster raised in an adult flock, does come up with better manners. They just get some thumped into them.

Some roosters are nice, some are not, and some are demons. The above poster has some points, but truthfully, I think some roosters are just more aggressive.

If you keep him, he will dramatically decrease your enjoyment of your hens. Even if you get him to submit today, can't trust him tomorrow.

Mrs K

 

[Pinkaboo]

This little one is cuddles
He's very affectionate, but also the best fighter and ring leader of any trouble , like sneaking out of the garden
Or going off to play in the farmers field!
He also sulks the most when he gets into trouble

He likes to follow me around including in the house, he's great with the cats and loves snuggling up to the other two cockerels

Good job I like a challenge because with the amount of cuddles and kisses and hugs we have everyday
If some of the posts are correct I'm in for a hell of a time
BUT I,ll cross that bridge when it happens at the moment I'm just enjoying the love

 

[Pinkaboo]

Sounds like you can't continue with this roo
I'd try separating him first see if he calms down
Its all new and he's asserting himself
A bit too much with the ladies!
If you seperate him then your son can still enjoy the hens without fear
Of being attacked

 

[cluckcluckhens]

Seems like we have the same problem with our almost 10 month old. End of April he will be a year. We have chased him around, kicked him. The problem is he wants to make me a nervous wreck. All it takes is for me to put feed in container. He is the first that I give treats to so I can hurry up and close the hatch to the coop to collect eggs. I'm thinking he don't want me in there or to take the eggs. The hard part is opening the hatch when I'm done. Once he trapped me behind the laying boards and I could not get to the door with eggs in hand with him in there that is when I yelled for my husband and he got him to get out. Girls seems to want to follow me in and then he is right behind the girls. I have three exit's in the coop. After running him around which the girls join in in the run around the run and then kick him, stomp our feet at him he is just fine between days and sometimes a couple of weeks. My method is to give him treats to keep him busy while I shut or open the hatch. We ended up with him with the chicks. Pretty boy is a Welsummer. I'm ready to contact a Welsummer place to see if they have any other ideas we can try. Maybe he doesn't like certain colors of clothes I'm wearing I just don't know if that is possible.

Our previous Rooster did not bother us, he was never held and he was fine. This one was an Australorp close to year when we got him.