One of my Roos keeps charging at us, what can I do to get him to chill out?

[3SiameseCats]

We have had Goat since he was a chick, along with his brother, Lucky. Lucky is a super sweet rooster and gets along well with Goat, despite our small adult hen flock, due to him being more submissive. He has never been a problem. Except Goat. Goat, as of recently, has started attacking me and both my parents. We know roosters can be fisty and are not to be had around children and such, but we don’t know why he feels threatened by us sometimes. He doesn’t always attack, but I have to be careful how I move around him to make sure he doesn’t go at me and to block any attack he makes. I’ve been using my foot to block which seems to work, as well as jumping back, but I’m not sure if i should be doing that or not. Knowing what I know about general animal behavior, I need to let Goat not “win” in his mind because that reinforces that he can do it again and that it’s an appropriate behavior.

 

[sourland]

Try scooping him up in a fishing net and carrying him around in a submissive state. How old is he?

 

[3SiameseCats]

Try scooping him up in a fishing net and carrying him around in a submissive state. How old is he?

I like that idea way too much. He’s 21 weeks.

 

[3SiameseCats]

Try scooping him up in a fishing net and carrying him around in a submissive state. How old is he?

Could I put him in a cage or large cat carrier or similar? Put him on a harness? I know doing something to put him in a submissive state will work, but I can think of a lot of things that might work. Also could the lack of adult hens be influencing this? We only have 5 adults and 4 pullets (used to have 7, lost 3)

 

[fuzzi]

We have had Goat since he was a chick, along with his brother, Lucky. Lucky is a super sweet rooster and gets along well with Goat, despite our small adult hen flock, due to him being more submissive. He has never been a problem. Except Goat. Goat, as of recently, has started attacking me and both my parents. We know roosters can be fisty and are not to be had around children and such, but we don’t know why he feels threatened by us sometimes. He doesn’t always attack, but I have to be careful how I move around him to make sure he doesn’t go at me and to block any attack he makes. I’ve been using my foot to block which seems to work, as well as jumping back, but I’m not sure if i should be doing that or not. Knowing what I know about general animal behavior, I need to let Goat not “win” in his mind because that reinforces that he can do it again and that it’s an appropriate behavior.

His hormones are flowing, he probably sees you as competition.

My two young roos (5 months) have done their puffy huffy shuffle around me, and one has pecked my legs. I have found the best response has been to just look at them, and then ignore them. I don't avoid them, act scared. I do watch them out of the corner of my eyes.

I had seven cockerels until recently. Using my feet to push them away seemed to encourage more attacks.

Is he hurting anyone?

 

[3SiameseCats]

His hormones are flowing, he probably sees you as competition.

My two young roos (5 months) have done their puffy huffy shuffle around me, and one has pecked my legs. I have found the best response has been to just look at them, and then ignore them. I don't avoid them, act scared. I do watch them out of the corner of my eyes.

I had seven cockerels until recently. Using my feet to push them away seemed to encourage more attacks.

Is he hurting anyone?

He isn’t hurting anyone except for minor injuries. The worst one was my dad and he scraped him up quite good. I feel like ignoring him teaches him the behavior is acceptable. I think I might email my vet sci instructor, she has chickens and would know what the appropriate response would be.

 

[SueT]

Not all cockerels are human aggressive, for example my current rooster and his late father, not even when they were young. I no longer bother to try to rehabilitate an aggressive one. He would be culled fairly quickly here. You may already have a good one. Get rid of the mean one and everyone can relax again.