FingerLakesChick, I agree with those who have said that how you handle the agressive roosters is different from rooster to rooster. But, I strongly disagree that an agressive rooster can always be handled with less than violence!! Remember that these guys are in the midst of a turf war 24/7. A turf war with other roosters and overly agressive hens as well as the occasional outsider (dogs, cats, YOU, and so on). And the way that they normally handle things is with violence..... flogging, pecking, stomping, spurring, and so on. Sometimes, the only thing that an agressive rooster will understand enough to make him back down and "yeild" to you..... is violence!!
Case in point..... When I was a kid, I was a member of 4-H. I got 100 Black Sex Link chicks from them.... 50 pullets, and 50 roosters. When the roosters got old enough to do so, we slaughtered all of them except those needed to keep the hens happy and to have the eggs well fertilized.
A few weeks after we slaughtered the unwanted roosters, the #1 and #2 roosters started getting very agressive. In fact, they became so agressive that my father soon became the only one in the family who could go in and feed them and collect the eggs.
Then, both roosters became very agressive to my dad. They would ruffle their feathers, charge him, and flogg him. For a while, daddy could simply charge them, yell at them, and use his foot to shove them back, and it would keep them at bay long enough for him to complete his business.
But soon, the #1 rooster decided that he would show my dad that he, and only he was the ruler of that roost. The rooster charged my dad, my dad shoved him aside with his foot, and the rooster ran several feet away from my dad. As soon as daddy turned his back on the rooster to go into the hen house and collect the eggs, the rooster flew at him and spurred him in the back of his leg.
Bleeding, hurting horribly, and EXTREMELY P.O.'ed, he went in the house. He returned to the hen yard with a broom that was about 75% worn out. Grasping the handle like a baseball bat, daddy hit many, many, many, many "home runs" on this rooster's body. And, he hit a few line drives on the rooster's head. Actually hoping that he had finally killed the bird, he left it bleeding and unconscious in the hen yard.
Daddy went into the house to get moma to help him clean up, doctor, and bandage the wound that the rooster had left in the back of his leg. After that was done and he sat down and rested for a few minutes, he decided that he needed to go back to the hen yard and dispose of the rooster's carcas.
To daddy's supprise, when he returned to the hen yard, the rooster was up and staggering around! Daddy said that the rooster was limping badly and staggering around like a skid row drunk!!
After that day, daddy could go into the hen yard without any problems at all!! The #1 rooster would run to the opposite corner of the hen yard from where daddy was and would cower there until daddy left the hen yard. The #2 rooster (who had witnessed the ordeal and got a couple of his own licks) would run over to the #1 rooster's side and crow at daddy. But, neither rooster ever acted agressive toward daddy again. In fact, as long as we carried the broom with us, any of the rest of us could go into the hen yard or hen house and the roosters would give us the same wide birth that they would give daddy.
From all of that, I learned that there are some roosters that are like some people....... the only thing that they understand is having the $hi* beat out of them!!
Robert
