Official BYC Poll: What Do You Do With Your Aggressive Roosters?

[Chickenwalls]

My rooster is still very young and he doesn’t seem to be aggressive toward the his flock. They all will “attack” each other but I think they are just playing they even do toward him. I have caught them a sunbathing and dusting themselves all together so it think he is a very kind cockerel. Him toward human he is also very calm. He will let me hold him and he completely relaxes in my arms

 

[Kathy at Timbercreek]

I love all these comments and have also eating the ‘extras’ when I had too many roos.
But with where I live (beside an enormous private and county forest), and with the heritage breed I have (Chantecler), aggressive males are actually desirable!!
They protect the flocks, as I free-range them some of the time. That said: I have no worries about loudness nor aggression with other humans. I make sure the roosters know I am dominant over them. I have livestock guardian dogs whom they respect, also. I have grandkids and it’s important to me the roosters are kind with them. Really, anyone else; I don’t care; and they are ‘intruders’ and not welcome!
Bottom line: Roos are easy to train! Time and patience is needed. Like with any animal.

 

[dellamarie]

My rooster is aggressive, but he's only doing his job. I carry a stick with me when I enter the run. As long as I keep the stick stretched out in his direction he won't attack me. We have a half door on the coop so I just close it behind me so he can't seek up while me guard is down. He's happy, I'm happy .. chickens are being protected.

 

[MixedFlock23]

I’m still trying to decide! Five years ago, we hatched eggs & ate the 4 cockerels after about 16 weeks because they all charged at & flogged my then-five-year-old. We bought sexed chicken for years after that. My oldest wanted specific breeds last year (none are sexed that I’ve found locally), so again we have 4 males (3 Silkies & 1 Ayam Cemani) about 9 months old now. Two have taken to charging & flogging my children. My children’s safety is very important obviously, so I don’t know how to go about trying to train the cockerels. If I let them out of the bachelor pen, then then the 2 might attack. I penned Moe down when he ran at me and beat my legs with his wings/feet, then I held him in my arms like a newborn (belly up!) for a bit and he hasn’t bothered at running at me since. But my children are not confident enough to intercept a charging chicken. Sigh. We’ve raised Larry, Moe, Curly, & Shemp from chicks and they were handled gently & respectfully. Not sure what went wrong or how to proceed with Moe the Silkie & Shemp the Ayam Cemani. So I guess either they never get interaction with anyone except me and never get to leave their pen to free range again, or we eat them. (Can’t rehome since we have had respiratory issues in the past and didn’t depopulate the flock. Also didn’t test any birds due to high cost ($150/bird and often indeterminate answers from the lab (according to the local breeder I got my birds from). It was likely infectious bronchitis that is gone now, but I can’t be sure without testing. Moe & Shemp didn’t catch it or were asymptotic, but still.)

 

[CreveChris]

I put them in “jail” for a month or so if they’re super aggressive towards the other birds. My one mega aggressive roo we had (which was our first experience with a rooster lol) was so bad that we’d go in the coop with one of those cheep plastic wiffle ball bats to defend ourselves. He got better as a free ranged. The ground rules kind of became you run at me and I run at you.

Similar to what I do. The guiding stick (a lightweight plastic agility jump crossbar from my Huskies' course) is necessary to teach the young roo to go in and out of the tractor and brooder once the hormones hit. The pullets are completely nonplussed and remain docile.

Without the stick, cockerels are not sure who's in charge. But I only use it to gently guide them, basically tapping it in front of them when they go the wrong way. Within a couple if weeks, they go straight to the target without prompting.

I pick them up every day, but from behind, well away from the bitey bits. Once they're held in arms, they don't bite, but proffered hands are promptly chomped. I'm on the fence about roosters a necessary--and gorgeous--part of breeding.

 

[CreveChris]

I trained my first rooster (Napoleon) as an adult because I was very young when I got him and didn’t know better. I was scared of him for a long time but then I was like no more! He died last year, he was honestly the best rooster, I miss him a lot! Another thing I do is re-home, but I always re-home extra roosters anyway regardless of aggression levels. And lastly, train when they are young. I have two cockerels I’ve been training since they were young, both began showing light aggression but I nipped it in the bud and they’re good now. They are both beautiful and very well-behaved so I am hoping to find them an actual home rather than a soup pot. The rooster I have now (Uriah) is so sweet and good, he isn’t aggressive but is a gentleman and very protective of his ladies. He is also super fluffy which is a very large plus

How do you train them?

 

[CreveChris]

Aggressive roosters aren't tolerated by us. If I can't tame them, they go into the pot.

So far we only had 2 terribly aggressive cockerels, one silkie, & a New Hampshire. They wanted to kick our butts every time we went into the coop. The silkie attacked everyone, & everything, so their was no taming him.

I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time, but I can't imagine a fluffy little poofball Silkie attacking! The Crevecoeurs roos literally look like devils, so it isn't terribly surprising. I'm considering a Silkie for broody tendencies and they're super popular in my area.

 

[CreveChris]

That's good the other one turned out nice.
My only nice RIR rooster was cannibalized by his Barred Rock hens one day. It was not a nice site.

Wow, so they'd had enough of him. My 4-month-old dom is already bossing the year-old hens (moms) around and he's about to get rehomed.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time, but I can't imagine a fluffy little poofball Silkie attacking! The Crevecoeurs roos literally look like devils, so it isn't terribly surprising. I'm considering a Silkie for broody tendencies and they're super popular in my area.

This silkie was a huge boy, he was a LF silkie.

 

[CreveChris]

This silkie was a huge boy, he was a LF silkie.
View attachment 2673760

Oh, wow! So beautiful and yes, rather imposing.