Rooster gone bad?!?

[AldoraRose]

I have a red rooster that I got at the end of last summer. He has been the nicest rooster I have ever seen. Anyone could walk up the pen, go in the pen and go right up and pet him no problem. He is maybe about 1 year old by now (if not a little bit older). He is in a pen with 6 females (all also very nice, go right up to people). This morning I did my usual routine: open their door, go into the food supply area, divvy out the food...as I step out of the supply room he attacks my leg ( i now have a nice blood blister on my knee). He ruffles himself up as if to attack again, I put my egg collecting bucket down in front of him (thinking maybe he is upset for some reason by it.) He looks at it and walks away. I brushed it off as a freak occurance, turned around and walked into the barn. I get to the room where the nesting boxes are and something rams into the back of my legs. I turn and see my rooster, collecting himself for another attack. I quickly dive and grab him. Once I am holding him, he is fine and calm. I proceeded to finish my chores in the barn while holding him. As I go to leave, I put him down and he seems fine, walks towards his females and proceeds as if nothing happened.

I am at a total loss as to what prompted the attack. Our other rooster started crowing (maybe this prompted his aggravation that he took out on me...but the other rooster has crowed before and never caused this issue).
I did bring out some baby chicks the other day and put them in a pen OUTSIDE of the chicken pen so they could all see each other.
I am watching a friends dog that had jumped all over me this morning (can chickens smell?)
The other rooster has one hen that has been laying on eggs for a few weeks (should be hatching any day)...maybe he sense more chickens in the next pen over??

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

 

[cubalaya]

it seems like he times his attacks for when you are not paying attention. i would not keep a rooster like this on my place. cull him before someone gets hurt worse.

 

[20736]

If you want to keep him, he can be trained.
He is just asserting himself in the yard as leader.
My avatar rooster would do this every Spring, and I would have to retrain him. I usually swat them with my ball cap when entering the yard for a couple days.
Now that he is a year old, he will get this way in the Spring. Sounds docile enough that retraining is a good option.
Good Luck with it.

 

[AldoraRose]

getting rid of him is not an option...he is my baby! -which is what shocked me the most. Once I "attacked him back" he was like "oh crap" and then fine when I was holding him. One thing I will not do is run from him as I know he would see that as a win for himself. Thank you for the advice!!! It is greatly appreciated!

 

[AldoraRose]

I went out to take care of the chickens again later today and he acted fine/normal. I dont know what his problem was this morning!!

 

[cubalaya]

good luck