Rooster aggression help?

[Kellyjean86]

“Cull” actually means reducing the flock size, whether by rehoming, separating from the main flock, or killing. In cases like this, it just means separating the trouble-maker from the rest, whichever means is used.

Thank you for explaining. I have a lot to learn!

 

[Mrs. K]

I hate the word cull and I could never handle being a party to it but I understand the strong reaction by those that are more experienced than myself. I will likely just rehome them. We were never supposed to have this many roosters, but the place we got the chickens "threw in" a few. A practice I will definitely protest when Im not so gullible next time.

I understand your predicament, and I see it often on here. The problem with this stems from thinking of chickens as pets like dogs and cats. It keeps us from thinking of them as a food source and into animals that we don't eat. This is a cultural expectations as some cultures do.

But along with the pet fallacy is the idea, unconscious but there, is that if we are good people and treat chickens like we would dogs and kittens, they will become life long friends with us and with the other birds in the flock. That is a fallacy. It can happen, but it also can create totally opposite behaviors. People tend to either take on blame or assign blame to people when that happens, as they did something wrong and that is a false assumption too.

I have had chickens for decades, and I have tried almost all of the aspects of raising chickens that there are. I have had just hen flocks, multiple roosters, single roosters, broody hens, hens and chicks, hatching out my own eggs and adding day old chicks and meat birds.
When it comes to roosters, in which I have had numerous birds, I had a lot of theories in the beginning, and not hardly any now.

Cockerel and rooster behavior is independent of human intervention. It is just individual to the bird. Walking tall, getting your bluff in early, hand feeding them, holding them, carrying them, spraying them with water, scolding them really has no long term effect on them. They really don't have a very large brain in comparison to the size of them. There is not a lot there to train.

They either are aggressive or they are not. And this is the very hardest part to understand, how they act today is not an indication how they will act tomorrow or next week, or next month, or even next year. However, once they begin to be aggressive, it escalates almost always, and really it never goes back to the pet state.

I keep a flock. I have kept a flock for decades. I love to watch them, see what they are up to, but I like a peaceful flock. Any more, I solve for a peaceful flock. When I cull, I cull quickly and humanely. And I get peace in the flock.

Wishing they would all just be nice, and get along does nothing. I get it, we have ALL BEEN THERE, but really removing those birds and some of them can be hens, is the best decision, IMO.

I really recommend an all hen flock to first time people. Roosters take experience IMO, and often times people don't recognize the signs that a rooster is becoming aggressive, until the attack seems to come out of the blue. I think that rooster in the first picture is giving the stink eye look.

If you really struggle with culling birds, and a lot of people do. Don't set yourself up for failure, and don't get roosters. They often need to be removed. Do give them away ASAP, and don't ask any questions. Once they are someone else's birds, they are not your concern.

Mrs K