Please tell me what my Rooster is doing

[SusanH]

I have a RIR rooster that is exhibiting some behavior I'm just not sure about. He's 17 weeks old. I have 3 other Roos and 8 hens, all the same age and breed.

This rooster follows me around like a dog, although it's not always been the case. When they were about a month younger, I could not get near this rooster. So, in an effort NOT to have an aggressive rooster, I began to pick him up and handle him every day.

Recently he has been leaving the flock and coming to my back door, sometimes crowing. I have gone out and sat on the step, and the rooster will lay down on the patio beside me like he's roosting. Sometimes I pick him up and pet him.

However, he also does his "rooster dance" around me sometimes and will reach out and bite my leg or my hand.

What I want to know...is this rooster really confused and thinks I'm a hen and this is some mating behavior he is exhibiting and will grow out of or is he just aggressive and I need to get rid of him?

He's beautiful, in fact, my favorite. However, I don't want this to continue or to get worse. If so, he may have to go in the pot!

I'm still deciding which rooster to keep, and for a while I thought it might be him; but I'm leaning towards one of the other roosters who seems to be more protective of the flock and while he respects me, does not care to be handled.

Is my biting rooster just too familiar?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.
Susan

 

[lisahaschickens]

In my very limited experience, it sounds like he could go either way. Some roos that act like that are actually courting the people, just like they do with hens. In that case, it's nothing to worry about. However, with my own 4 young roos (I, like you have 4 roos and 11 pullets and will soon be reducing my roo population), they do the wing-drop courting dance to each other as a sign of domination to make the other males back down. I would keep a close eye on him. The fact that he likes to be petted is a good sign, I think, but he's still a male, and testosterone is a strong influence and you should watch for aggression signs. Also, at this age, the hormones really start raging, and I've been told that they can go through an "unpleasant" stage that can sometimes go away once the hormones settle down in t a few months.

Anyway... good luck to you. It will be interesting to hear what others have to say.

 

[vnploveschickens]

He's trying to show that he is dominate over you. You need to get him to stop that. You need to be alpha over him. Otherwise, you'll have some problems with that rooster being agressive with you and others. There are lots of other good threads on this subject, just do a search.

Good Luck!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I agree. My rooster keeps his distance and that's how I like it. I'm the alpha "roo" and he doesn't want to get too close to the alpha.

 

[SusanH]

Quote:
I agree. My rooster keeps his distance and that's how I like it. I'm the alpha "roo" and he doesn't want to get too close to the alpha.

Gritsar, I just read your page on reforming roosters. I think I made the mistake of spoiling this boy. I am going to follow your experience and see how it goes.

Thanks so much

 

[gritsar]

Not saying it works every time, but it worked for me. In my experience here on BYC the roos that get spoiled and babied are the ones that grow up to be trouble.
Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

 

[txchickie]

Get him away from you. He's invading your personal space.


I loove to hold my silkies and they come sit at my feet and in my lap, and that's all fine with me, they are lovers

.
However I have a young blue EE rooster that I totally do not trust...he tries to come stand near me or follow me around and honestly he creeps me out LOL! He's not done anything agressive towards me yet, but I know it's just a matter of time.

I had 2 oegb roos that ended up as supper because they would attack. They started out with them just being close around me and ended up with them clawing/pecking/etc...

 

[SusanH]

Well, I was just outside getting ready to put them in the coop and the rooster came over near me. I shoo'd him and he didn't move so I picked him up with the top of my foot and tossed him back a foot. He came over to me again so I did the same thing and then I chased him squawking and flapping my arms.

He looked shocked, to say the least. I hope it cures him soon because I don't like to do such things, but I won't have him biting me.

The rooster I'm likely to keep tried to mount a hen right at my feet so I pushed him off.

 

[WriterofWords]

I have a couple of roos who sit with me, I hold them, Blue and Nugget, but they don't do the rooster dance at me. The only one who tries to do that is Popadoodlestupid, (Popcorn), and he thinks he's top dog at times. I'm not sure what to say about yours because we all treat our roos differently.

 

[SusanH]

Well, I treat them all like pets but this is the only one who bites me. The other 3 roosters don't, and I can pet 2 of those.

I don't mind him being close to me and I don't even mind him doing the rooster dance, but he cannot bite me. Period.