All those "what went wrong posts" have to do with imprinting, and there are an equal number of other posts and stories from people who didn't coddle their roosters who still have the same rooster problems. My sisters, much older than I, for example, recall the roosters on our parents' farm as being mean. They weren't raised by hand, and they weren't coddled, so I don't buy your theory at all. Genetics, and as wise Uriel pointed out, lack of adult male role models for the rooster chicks are key. My rooster can't help it that he didn't have a father figure. He doesn't deserve to end up in a soup pot for something that wasn't his fault.
Do what you want with your own roosters, but please don't tell me what to do with mine, keesmom. You are a very different personality type from me, as is evident by your frequent posts on this topic. Perhaps you can kill roosters easily enough, but I never could, nor would I want to do so. I am not a killer personality.
No, I have never been spurred by a rooster or had one go at my face. That is because I respect my rooster and give him his space. I don't let loud children around him. Luckily, I don't have any loud children to annoy him and agitate him.
I discussed this with my SO, and he thinks Uriel is brilliant, too. He totally buys her theory that it is the lack of a male role model for the rooster that caused the problem. I teased him that he was too much a work-a-holic and wasn't there for our buy at the critical stage when he needed 'male bonding,' so now he is accepting the blame, and not blaming me for coddling. He has seen too many boys from single parent homes, with only a single mother raising them, who have similar behavioral issues. It really makes sense.
It's very simple. Thank you, Uriel, for being a close observer of rooster behavior. You should write up an article about this. It is fascinating!
To each his own. If you want dead roosters, fine. I want mine alive and happy.
