RIR challenging me 7 weeks old... Please help

[Nicole01]

Perhaps I have a roo. My Gyspy has had red wattles and red comb(still smaller) for two weeks. The RIR has always been at the top of the flock. I put them in the coop and my RIR has jumped at me 3 times pushing me using both feet. He/she is 7/8 weeks old. Do I possibly have a roo or could this be an aggressive hen? Will the behavior calm down once she lays eggs if she is a hen? He/she pecked me once too. All this behavior is when I have my backed turned sitting in the coop.

What do I do? I can not have an aggressive hen with the kids around, so can I correct this?

 

[mlward]

Hmmm, I have the same issue with one of my GLW's. I already know he's a roo, but at 10 weeks, he is showing behavior that my buff brahma bantam roo never showed at his age. Coming in the coop when I'm in there and coming right up to my legs, giving me this "look", and a couple days ago when I bent to pet him, he bit me. Didn't draw blood but it smarted and took me by surprise. He was the one that always wanted to come sit on my hand & arm when he was smaller. I'll work with him and see what happens, but I won't keep him if this behavior continues. I've only had chickens for a year and having a bird I can't turn my back on would take the fun out of it for me. So, we'll see...

 

[Nicole01]

Quote:
Good luck. I can't keep any roo's though, my neighbors would be really mad if I did. Is it hard to rehome an aggressive chick?

 

[mlward]

I'm not sure as I haven't had to do that yet. I've seen where people have had success with Craig's List, but I don't know. Hopefully, I can find a good home for the GLW if it comes to that.

 

[skhomer]

I posted two 6 week old Speckled Sussex roos on CraigsList and Cheapcycle ... had a reply from Cheapcycle and they were gone in 2 days I did ask what she planned for the birds (NE Georgia, big bird fighting territory) and was assured they would grow up to be big boys with plenty of lady friends.

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
Cull--------I started out with RIRs and culled the aggressive ones. I have been raising mutts from my own eggs for years now and haven’t had an aggressive Roo for years now. I keep several Roos and think that having a staggered age progression of the Roos keeps the younger ones in line.

 

[Nicole01]

Quote:
Cull--------I started out with RIRs and culled the aggressive ones. I have been raising mutts from my own eggs for years now and haven’t had an aggressive Roo for years now. I keep several Roos and think that having a staggered age progression of the Roos keeps the younger ones in line.

Noooooooooo.... LOL I can never cull a living animal. If the aggression progresses or Gyspy is a male, I will rehome.

 

[Barrdwing]

I would be concerned that Gypsy is a roo also; that's pretty pushy behavior that's being demonstrated right now. I have re-homed a lot of roos (and some hens!) because they were aggressive or simply bullies. Sometimes re-homing is enough to make the bird mend its ways; being taken to a new flock and having to endure being the "new kid" for a while is enough to take the wind out of their sails. But yeah, don't keep a chicken that is giving you a bad time. We had a nasty biting hen when I was a kid, and that was enough to spoil most of the fun of keeping chickens.

Craigslist is a great place to re-home birds, although it can be tricky sometimes to be sure that the people who reply are not thinking "Dinner!" when they see your post. Neighbors can be good resources too--word of mouth is very useful sometimes.

 

[foreverdavis]

I'm not personally experienced with this at all, but...I just read an article in a magazine this week about rooster "challenging" people--trying to develop the "pecking order" so to speak. The author said that he put several buckets of toys/balls etc around the area so that they were within reach anywhere this "challenge" would happen. He said to start pelting the said chicken with the items--not hurting them of course. He said they will learn the correct pecking order within 30 minutes. If someone tries this, please post!

Angie

 

[speckledhen]

At this point, before the bird has hormones in the picture, it's testing boundaries, probably not being truly aggressive. Snatch it up, carry it around, hold it's tiny beak shut if it bites (don't cover the nares so it can breathe!), etc. If they are that young, you can usually break the habit. If it starts after the age of mating when hormones come into play, it usually can't be fixed, in spite of what some will tell you. The timing is the key as to whether or not it's true aggression.