So I have a 4 month old barred rock rooster. The other day my 15 month old son was in the chicken yard and he jumped and kicked my sons stomach. I kicked him away and my husband chased him around a bit. A few days after that, I was just standing with all the chickens and he pecked my leg, hard!! I grabbed him by the butt and held him upside down for a second and chased him and made myself bigger. Today, he jumped at my 7 year old nephew and scratched him up. His mother chased him around and he tried to get to my nephew again. I need some tips as to how to handle him. I'd like to work with him-I'd hate to lose/cull him without trying anything first. Could this just be adolescence? I'm willing to work with him but am very concerned as we have five young children that go down into the chicken yard with us. I'm open to any suggestions.
With that many children I would be very concerned. If there were only adults in your family it would be a different story. You may even want to rethink if you even need a rooster with children. If the answer is yes, you might try to get an adult from someone who just has too many roosters and they too have roosters and can vouch for their rooster's character. But the children's safety would have to be paramount.
Yeah, their safety is most important. We have two. Unfortunately, we didn't know they were roosters until just a few weeks ago! The other one is nice and keeps to himself. Do you think his behavior will get worse as he grows?
Eliminate the aggressive cockrel before someone is really injured! You won't 'cure' him of being a real danger to your children, and he will be a very good dinner for you or some other family. Soon! The other cockrel may be fine, or not. Only time will tell. Mary
