Rooster Getting Aggressive

[jthornton]

Well Henry is in the dog house tonight, twice he came after me in the last two days... never connected but had the intent. I was better prepared this time and he has a separate place to stay for a few days to get his mind right. When he get his dirt out of my hole he can come back to the coop.

JT

 

[aart]

Well Henry is in the dog house tonight, twice he came after me in the last two days... never connected but had the intent. I was better prepared this time and he has a separate place to stay for a few days to get his mind right. When he get his dirt out of my hole he can come back to the coop.

JT

How many chances are you going to give him?

 

[Ruralhideaway]

Aww that's too bad, I hoped he was done with that.

 

[speckledhen]

Unfortunately, hatchery stock is a crap shoot, temperament-wise. They don't select for that. I have two lines of Barred Rocks and not a mean BR rooster has hatched from either because they were selected for temperament. Usually, if that aggression starts and keeps on, it won't stop later no matter what you do. You may make him temporarily afraid of you, but eventually, he'll see his chance and attack you, or that's been my experience in past years. It's been a very, very long time since I had to deal with an aggressive rooster and it's really a joy to be able to turn my back on any one of them.
Sadly, I don't think separating Henry will do any good. In fact, it may make him worse when you put him back. He doesn't understand "time-out". I hope I'm wrong. After all, each rooster is an individual, however, I've never seen one come back from ramped-up aggression.

 

[jthornton]

How many chances are you going to give him?

I don't know, I'm not one to give up easy...

JT

 

[aart]

I don't know, I'm not one to give up easy...

JT

Well, it will entertain us all until you reach the end of your rope

 

[speckledhen]

I don't know, I'm not one to give up easy...

JT

Honestly, how many chances you give him is up to you. I would always give a young rooster two or three myself. If he begins flogging, I pretty much know it won't end well. I truly believe that some of it is a function of intelligence. Smarter roosters understand who brings food and water and will not attack the source of that. They may test boundaries when young, but the smart ones learn very quickly who is boss. The truly intelligent ones never even attempt to buck the system. They get it. Temperament is hereditary as well; guess you can say the same for intelligence. A human aggressive male will usually produce more of the same, though nothing is 100% with animals, of course.

My little porcelain Belgian D'Anver rooster is dumb as a box of rocks. He's almost 7 years old, knows for a fact I will not hurt him, but acts like I am a scary monster and will flog me out of the blue for no known reason still. His son is slightly smarter, but not much, LOL. But, being less than 25 oz each, they are hardly a threat to my safety. I'd begin selecting for temperament with them if I was going to breed them further, but the sweet little hens are the worst layers ever and I'm letting them just die off.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I can see the point brought up about hatcheries not breeding for good temperament and breeders that do but idk that's the issue.
Just because hatcheries don't take that into account doesn't mean the majority of their roosters are going to be mean. I've had a lot of well tempered hatchery birds.
With breeders being a very umbrella term there's no guarantee they are breeding for good temperament either.
Actually the last few grown roosters I've bought from breeders have been some of my worst roosters.
The last two were an orpington and a brahma which most on here say are great very docile roosters.
I believe hands down the reason of the explosion of mean roosters are coming from how they're raised.
Of course there's always going to be some aggressive roosters because of their breeding or their individual stupidity or what have you but imho none of that compares to what we're doing to them when raising them.
The movement to change chickens from livestock to pets is bad business for roosters.
There's so many small backyard flocks that are roosterless that a higher percentage of males are considered useless from hatch.
Then the ones that do find a home are being raised with mans best friend mentality. They're not domesticated like dogs and cats and raising them like such is what seems to be a very common denominator in these stories of uncontrollable roosters.
Then these methods of hugging and loving them or dominating them into a good rooster just causes more confusion and worseness the issues.

 

[speckledhen]

Just because hatcheries don't take that into account doesn't mean the majority of their roosters are going to be mean. I've had a lot of well tempered hatchery birds.
With breeders being a very umbrella term there's no guarantee they are breeding for good temperament either.

You are putting words in my mouth. I never said those things.

I did not say the majority of hatchery roosters will be mean, I only said they do not select for temperament. And they don't.

I also did not say all breeders select for temperament, either. I do select for it and my Delaware line came from a breeder who also selected for temperament. My Blue Orp rooster produced some of the best behaved roosters you could ask for over the years I had him.

NO one ever said there was a guarantee even if you do select for temperament, me included, you are simply more likely to get males that are not human-aggressive than if you just take your chances with miscellaneous hatchery stock. An animal with a nut-size brain can't come with any temperament guarantee of any sort. There are exceptions to every rule. I only know that on down the line, every male that is descended from my Delaware rooster, whether they were pure Delaware or they were crosses, was easygoing and non-human aggressive. I've raised enough in my lines of Orps and Rocks and Delawares to know that good males usually produce other well-behaved males. Good genes pass on. That includes temperament.

As far as breeders, I've heard ridiculous claims from some that say a male must be human aggressive to be a good breeder, or aggressive to watch out for the hens. Poppycock! Not all breeders are good ones, nor do they select for the same traits.

A genetically-predisposed mean rooster will turn on you whether you ignore him or try to make him in to a pet. I've seen it. Genes will out.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Didn't mean for you to take it so personal.
I took your post as a general idea about temperament and the importance of breeding with it in mind.
Guess I was reading more into it then you meant.
Sorry, my bad.
My point was imo almost all the aggressive rooster stories that are posted very rarely have anything to do with their breeding as it does with how they are raised and then with some how they're trying to be corrected.