I am a newbie here, and brand new to raising chickens. We got our first chicks (bantam) from MM Hatchery on Feb.19. We split an order of 25 with someone, and won a coin toss for the freebie exotic chick. Below is a picture of it, we have taken to calling it Bully as it has literally had a very aggressive personality from day one. Now here is my question, is it normal for such a young chick to be aggressive to people? I have not had any personal problems with him/her, maybe because I am the main caretaker of the chicks. However, every time "Bully" has been out of the brooder when my sister is in the house, he/she will go to great lengths to attack her. He is just recently learning to 'fly' and is now aiming for her face. At this point it is basically just funny to see such a tiny angry ball of feathers and fuzz chase a grown woman, but it does make me wonder how he will be as he grows. (I have small children) I have no real idea what breed Bully may be, but am inclined to think rooster because of the aggression. I try to handle him as much as I can without stressing him out, which he pretty much hates. He refuses to even hand feed from me while most of the other chicks have taken to climbing up my arms to perch on my shoulders for short naps. I hope this is the correct place to post this, any and all ideas/comments are very welcome!!
Some of my chicks i hatched are more agresive, but I handled them alot and now they have mellowed out, the same thing with my 1 and 2 year old birds. I just had to handle them alot and they relaxed. Try having your kids handle them, they just need to learn how to behave and not be scared. But I also had a mean rooster, he was just nasty but only to the rest of my family so i had to get rid of him. It is all the personality, not nessicarly the gender. I have some really sweet roosters!!
Sorry unsure on what breed but it looks soo cute I have never come across agressive chicks before and I havent even come across any agressive roosters all of mine have been so freindly well to the other roosters maybe not but that changed by rehoming them
Almost ALL freebie chicks are roosters. Chicks go through a teenage phase where they can be hard to get along with. Frequent handling and feeding of treats will win him over. Try to not respond to his bad behavior. If he continues to get his way, it will only get worse. Try fine shredded cheese for treat.
X2 for a treat (our chickens think this is the best thing in the world) is noodles, our chicks LOVE it, hope he stops acting like a brat soon
Thanks to all of you for such good advice!! I was afraid if I forced too much attention on him he would start to dislike me more. Everyone else seemed to like me in their own time when they realized I always had food in hand. I will start working more with him and offering him some yummier snacks. Maybe he just has a personal problem with my sister, as she is the only person he outright attacks, everyone else he just kind of shuns and gives dirty looks. Lol. Thank you Atikin, I have to agree he is pretty cute even if he is a little hateful.
