LCcreekside
Chirping
How about "Don't spur the woman who keeps you from becoming dinner!" Those 2 would have already been welcomed to Sunday dinner if I had my way!
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This may be a little long, but I am curious. I am new to chicken keeping, I've only had them for a few months and it has never occurred to me to be afraid of my rooster. I have been around animals my whole life and sort of figured if I can take a young horse and train it to be controllable and gentle without any sort of halter or saddle or bridle, then I have no need to worry about being bullied by a 6lb rooster. I do realize that some people are more timid or less comfortable around animals than I may be, but is my rooster suddenly going to grow fangs or something? ( I'm obviously not being serious about that part) I know that as he grows he will develop spurs and I intend to keep those filed down, but all of this talk of not looking them in the eye or not picking up a hen because he is around has me worried that I might do something wrong because I did not know better. Thanks in advance for your help!
You two have an advantage of understanding human behavior around livestock, especially male livestock....just keep that going, it applies to chickens too, tho there might be a bit of a learning curve as you become more aware of the avian 'warning signs'.You are in my boat. I have grown up around every kind of farm animal (except chickens) and even have six horses now. I have never been afraid of any of them, other than respecting the breeding males. We have a stallion now, and even though he’s young, he doesn’t worry me as much as the thought of one/all of my roos going rogue. I think I’ve been reading too much!
Most of my roosters that followed me across the yard eventually launched a surprise attack. I don't give them long to hit the deep freezer cause I don't tolerate aggression in my showbirdsLately my rooster has been following me when I go out to give the girls treats. Today I put down the treats, dropped the bag, then started walking away and my roo kept following me, as he did throughout the rest of the day. Is he just being friendly and wanting food or is he going to try and assert his dominance at some point?
This sounds like a good plan. Don't handle the cockerels any more than is necessary as this will keep some of their natural fear of you in place. Once they are familiar with you, you become part of their flock and they'll try to dominate you. My two roosters are not human aggressive. I leave them alone and they leave me alone, but they DO come around when I am feeding the flock. They'll follow and move out of my way when necessary. I also use a long stick to move birds out of my way if necessary, so they don't look at the stick as coming from me. I have a 12 week old cockerel is the son of one of my roosters and he looks to be following in his father's footsteps. I've left him alone and I haven't had any aggression from him at all.Reading all this kind of frightens me. I currently have five 10 week old cockerels (two of which will be processed in 5-6 more weeks) along with 19 pullets. However, I am constantly watching these birds and looking for possible “bad” signs. I’m probably even reading things into their actions. I think I so badly want a peaceful flock that I’m gonna jinx myself. I have always been very loving on my older hens and I’m now afraid I won’t be able to continue loving on my hens. After everything I have read I’m making sure that I pick up my little pullets and love on them right in front of the cockerels, while not paying the cockerels any attention individually. I hope everything plays out just fine.
I use a trashcan lid as a shieldI also use a long stick to move birds out of my way if necessary