Rooster behavior

[Folly's place]

This bird frightens you, and is behaving badly. Usually, in spite of the folks who claim that cockerels can do better later, the bird only gets worse. This cockerel has already figured out that you fear him, and that you have a blind side.
Somebody will be delighted to have a chicken dinner, if it's not you!
Mary

 

[Chicken poppy]

With my experience roosters are big babies if you do decide to get rid of him I'd get a rooster as a chick and hand raise him and give him loves of cuddles so he'll see you more as family. Since he's still young I'd still try and work with him

The only problem is by doing this, later on, assures that you are weak and he is dominant.
I do this with all my chickens, the roosters have always turned out bratty at some point if i don’t let him know im in charge, some dominance is needed and not all love because then he takes it as submitting to him.

 

[Folly's place]

Chickens are not puppies or kittens, and just don't think like that! (And a puppy who gets nothing but cuddles and no rules to follow isn't going to be a great family member either.)
Both genetics and management are involved in rooster behavior; some will be fine no matter what, and others will be miserable attack birds ditto.
Mary

 

[BarnyardChaos]

He is 7 months old, yes, will give him more time, it just scares the crap out of me, heard all the stories of serious attacks on humans. thank you

It depends. If you can guarantee that you'll NOT feel fear around him, and that you'll walk "through" him to show dominance every single time you meet - and if he pecks at you then you won't hesitate to grab him by the back of the neck, give a shake and toss him aside - then he will learn you are THE dominant and he shouldn't ever bother you again.

But if you still feel fearful, or if you allow anyone *anyone* to be in his space with him, then it may be best to rehome him before it becomes stressful to have him around or someone gets hurt.

If you don't get enjoyment from keeping this rooster, then why keep him at all? (That's rhetorical; you don't have to answer. Just think on it.)

 

[Isadora]

If you do plan on keeping him in the near future to try to work on his behavior, do you have a run he can be in? It does greatly bother me that he snuck up on your blind side and could easily do so in the future. Seems a shame to step out of your house and have to instantly be on guard for an attack bird.

 

[Sussex19]

He is 7 months old, yes, will give him more time, it just scares the crap out of me, heard all the stories of serious attacks on humans

I think he really needs to go.
If he is scaring you, (and I don't blame you, I would be to) he will take all the enjoyment out of having chickens.
I have had a rooster, that while he never went into full attack, was inclined to give me the 'eye' and follow me around.
I could never relax around him, and it made it hard work looking after them.
I now have two really good roosters, who are a joy to have around. There are so many good roosters that no one wants, why not give one of them a try, instead of this guy?

I want my roosters to be flock masters, and not concern themselves with me at all, except to bring their hens for feed.

 

[KRack]

With my experience roosters are big babies if you do decide to get rid of him I'd get a rooster as a chick and hand raise him and give him loves of cuddles so he'll see you more as family. Since he's still young I'd still try and work with him

I don’t think this matters. I think often times it would go the other way, and the rooster would eventually try to dominate you instead of knowing he needs to submit to you. But genetics and personality probably play a large part.

I never handled our roo. He was raised by one of our hens, and knew me as leader. I talk to all of them but coddle/cuddle none. He was mean to the ladies and had to go, but was never mean to me. Because he was mean to the hens under him, I’m assuming he would have been mean to me if I had shown weakness at any point, and I was very glad I didn’t.

 

[Mrs. K]

Most of the time, the attacks become more and more violent.

IMO it is too late to change him. They really don't have much of a brain to train.

When you get him gone, you will feel more comfortable with your chickens.

Mrs K

 

[Keeper of Flocks]

He is just 7 months old, I have been trying different things with him but not working so far, I don’t want to get rid of him, but might need to?

The first red flag to me is he’s gotten the big head by having been allowed to have free reign of your place at this young age. A cockerel ought, in my experience, to earn this privilege, before being let out to roam freely, or readily taking the hens as his own. In situations where there’s an established cock to keep him in line, that’s different, but eventually he’s strong enough to overtake the hens. I like to let the older hens raise them, until they’re getting to maturity, then, if no older cock around, I keep him separated until I know I’ve got his respect first. I prefer to do this with a small group, rather than a lone cockerel. Only then does he get his own hens, if he is well behaved.
How long has he had this freedom? If he’s had it all his life, I think it would be best to make a decision to not allow this to happen to anyone, yourselves included.
He may make a fine meal for someone, but alive, he’s already taking over, this was no defense, but offensively he attacked.
As you said, your attempts are not working.

 

[hugyourchicken]

The first red flag to me is he’s gotten the big head by having been allowed to have free reign of your place at this young age. A cockerel ought, in my experience, to earn this privilege, before being let out to roam freely, or readily taking the hens as his own. In situations where there’s an established cock to keep him in line, that’s different, but eventually he’s strong enough to overtake the hens. I like to let the older hens raise them, until they’re getting to maturity, then, if no older cock around, I keep him separated until I know I’ve got his respect first. I prefer to do this with a small group, rather than a lone cockerel. Only then does he get his own hens, if he is well behaved.
How long has he had this freedom? If he’s had it all his life, I think it would be best to make a decision to not allow this to happen to anyone, yourselves included.
He may make a fine meal for someone, but alive, he’s already taking over, this was no defense, but offensively he attacked.
As you said, your attempts are not working.

Hi there Keeper of Flocks
I think your on to something,
Yes, all of our 8 chickens (7 hens one rooster) have been together for 7 months. They have a nice coop with a very large pen 5 feet tall they can run around and find bugs etc.
Coop has a small chicken door for them that we close off at night, also there’s a big door in front that opens, which goes out to the back lots of room, and our back door, so it’s about 70 feet from back door to coop, we started letting the chickens out the big door (we have 2 1/2 acres)
They love it of course, I think your right, when Rodger reached puberty and raging hormones when he saw us out walking he probably thought we were invading (his) space “wrong”, so, now we don’t let them out the big door, they have to stay in their outside pen for awhile, thank you for your comment.
Nancy