Rooster Behavior

[Jclem80]

3 years ago we got our first chickens we started out with five Golden Wyandotte all hens and all the yard was quiet! The next year we went out and bought three more, this time Speckled Sussex. We had some issues getting all eight of the chickens to get along but eventually they all figured it out. To our surprise one of the new Sussex was a Roo. It was fun though we actually ended up getting two eggs to hatch and had baby chicks following momma round the yard. Well the one Roo we had at the time became VERY aggressive to my wife and kids. It got so bad that when we would tell the kids to go out and play our 4 yr old daughter would break down in tears afraid to go out because of "featherhead". So "featherhead" is no longer with us... shortly after the Roo was gone we found that one of the baby chicks was another Roo! Again we were very excited to have baby chicks running around with the mommas again this summer. Well that was until the new Roo started attacking the two Sussex! He was so aggressive with the two that he was drawing blood on them. We ended up segregating the two sussex together letting them roam around the whole yard and keeping the 7 Wyandotte in our 20x64 run (plenty of room for all 9) Anyways, long story longer my question is can they let bygones be bygones and all get along? Should I gradually letting them try to re-integrate or keep them all separate? They have been away from each other now for almost a month. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Oh and some friends of the family had made a comment that they don't tolerate mean Roos at all and deal with accordingly as soon as they see aggression in their behavior. Thoughts?

 

[CrazyChookLady5]

I don't know if this is going to answer any of your questions, but I have 2 silkie roos, they are both quite calm, but when ever I get more roos its from a broody hen, so I keep the hen and her chicks penned into my broody coop, which is right next to my normal coop, so the baby roos and mum can see the rest of the flock, when the chicks get about 6 weeks old I let them and their mum out with my flock, and the roos are friendly to my hens, although I have had trouble with roos fighting.
But your trouble might be because of the breed of roo, see my roos are silkies and most silkies roos are but other breed have been known for being a mean roo breed, if that makes any sense!

anyways, I hope this helped!!

 

[aart]

Rooster aggression has little to do with breed type, except for some game breeds...but you don't want to let a mean rooster reproduce because it is known to be hereditary.

I'm a little confused about how many roos you now have. Chances are that more than one roo will cause fights, not always, but probability goes up.

With little kids onsite, I would get rid of all roos and if you want to do some breeding find a nice rooster and keep him and his hens in a separate run so your kids are not in danger. It takes split second for even a nice roo to feel threatened by a bouncy little kid running around and take a kids eye out or traumatize them for life.

Good Luck to you!

 

[Jclem80]

Right now we only have one Roo and he is the offspring of the one that was mean to the family. The one we have now is perfectly fine around the family it's just the two sussex that he's attacking.