Rooster behavior

[LCcreekside]

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!

 

[aart]

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 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!

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'.

 

[meetthebubus]

There may be another reason he is following you. It is a very important job/pride thing for a rooster to provide food to his hens. It makes him look good. I always make sure my roo gets treats when he wants it bc what he does is drops it for them, sometimes passes it directly from beak to beak, and sometimes he calls them over and gives it to them it always makes him look good

So he might be asking you to give him treats to give to them too

Whenever I find a few live worms I give them to the rooster so that he can choose who gets this special treat as well

I also think the rooster will appreciate this that you do this, I think mine do

 

[Crow-ded house]

My 10 pound barred Mr Spot is the sweetest ever. Whenever I go outside he starts clucking, making dinosaur noises and chirping. It gets his girls excited and by the time I get in the run, they are all there waiting for treats. I give them and he inspects then tidbit noises then steps out of the way so I sneak him his own treat for being a good boy. Mr Toughie is maybe 3 pounds if even of bantam that will sideways walk to me like a dance giving me the evil eye. I make a point of walking toward him til he is in a corner or backs down and leaves. He did actually strike at me once so I picked him up and cuddled him for about 10 mins and he hated it but I told him it sucked to be him as I called the shots. He keeps his distance now but still gives me the eye. Point is both were raised same way and you do not know what you will get. We have 6 other roos that are just turning 4 mths old and one comes up wanting the treats the orhers keep their distance. I figure next couple of mths will tell who is good and who is bad.

 

[meetthebubus]

Oh here's a fun video on the interaction of my 2 roosters

 

[BlackHackle]

Lately 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?

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 showbirds

 

[Peeps61]

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.

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.

 

[BlackHackle]

I also use a long stick to move birds out of my way if necessary

I use a trashcan lid as a shield

 

[Kessel23]

What breed is he? Certain breeds have more aggressive roosters, almost every aggressive roo I have owned, besides 3, has been a Leghorn. The others were cornish cross and a Golden Campine. My dad also had bad experiences with Leghorn roosters, they are not show quality birds but they have come from different places and almost always are aggressive, I think I have had 2 or 3 nice Leghorn roosters.

 

[meetthebubus]

I just want to restate it totally depends on your actual bird

Chickens aren't cookie cutters they have different personalities and just bc a person is nice to one they aren't going to turn on you, I mean they could, but the point is they are each unique in some ways and different things trigger different behaviours for different roosters,

Anyone reading this in the future (cause I often come upon 8 yr old posts on google) keep in mind I don't think there is always one or two ways way a rooster will turn out

out of 6 roosters only 1 pecked my toes
A different one tried to corral me
A third one charged at me
Another is completely docile
And still another defends me anytime the other has a 'tude

One more thing, my first 3 were pretty mean and fought amongst each other too

My other 2 which I still have I bought as pullets, and they taught me that roosters can be really great and important and fun and etc.
I'm so glad my experience with roosters didn't end after the girst 3.