Rooster gone mean - singling out hen

[ChickenLassie]

Hi! Our rooster has suddenly gone mean. Our chickens were hand raising from hatchlings by our kids including the rooster. Everyone would comment how kind he was. They are now 2 years old and in January we went out of town for two months. We came back and the rooster started flying at my kids, first my daughter then my son who has been his buddy. He’s never done anything like that before. My son would hold him and talk to him to let him know who’s boss, has always been gentle with him. We would maybe it was just spring time jitters or maybe bc we’d been gone so long? He’s now singled out one hen. She’s the smallest and at the bottom of the pecking order. Everyone picks on her but he chases her and I’m afraid is going to really hurt her. She already wears a chicken saddle and has half her feathers in her wing pecked out. For reference our coop is suppose to hold 8-10 chickens and we have 8 birds total, their dry run is about 12x10 and they go out in moveable runs on the grass most days during the week that are 30x6 in size.

 

[Theorrin]

im going on the whole gone for too long. imo your no longer the head of the flock, he is and he's now making sure you know who is boss

 

[Saveria]

I would guess that hen may be refusing to mate with him. Roos can get really intense when that happens, to the point of being violent.

I would try keeping him in a dog crate in the chicken coop or run (wherever is big enough but predator proof) for a week so he can see everybody, but not interact. If you let him out and he returns to the behavior immediately, I would rehome him. If he returns to it after a while, I would try the box again, whenever he does the undesirable behavior.

Roosters can put peoples eyes out, and there are too many great roosters that need a home for it to make sense to keep a bad one. I am not willing to keep any that I can't 100% trust. You have to decided that for yourself, but I believe that aggressive roosters aren't leading a happy life anymore either way. I totally understand how bonded we get to them when they are kind, but the damage they can cause isn't worth the risk.

 

[SueT]

You’ve got kids, re-home or cull the rooster Asap. I wouldn’t give a rooster a second chance with children around. He’s a liability now…

 

[nuthatched]

Off with his head or off to the funny farm. Zero tolerance for aggressive behavior around kids.

 

[SueT]

Our chickens were hand raising from hatchlings by our kids including the rooster. Everyone would comment how kind he was.

Btw, welcome to BYC. Sorry your intro has to be under duress. The above quote kind of sums up what the experts say can be the key factor to creating an aggressive rooster. The chicks imprint on humans and later may see humans as competition rather than another species. I don’t know if there’s a cure once it has gone this far.

 

[Red Mangrove]

Treating roosters like pets is dangerous. Petting them and feeding them from your hand is dangerous.
Doing these things teaches the rooster that humans are chickens and even worse that your family is lower in the pecking order than the rooster

Direct result from petting, hand-feeding and being overly touchy with roosters is human directed violence. Usually children

I would cull or re-home (to somewhere without children) and try again

 

[ChickenLassie]

Thanks for the welcome and help/suggestions so far. We actually did not know we had gotten a rooster when we bought the chicks (from a reputable breeder). We thought we had 8 hens and didn’t realize until a few months in. For a year and a half the rooster was never violent, never went after anyone, was good to the hens, kept them safe. It’s just after we got back from our trip he started challenging us and really picking on the lowest hen in the pecking order. How do you even go about re-homing a rooster or is his fate chicken dinner?

 

[SueT]

How do you even go about re-homing a rooster or is his fate chicken dinner?

We have poultry swaps in our area, I have taken extra birds there and sold them. I don’t like killing them myself so I gave some cockerels to an Amish woman who lives nearby. You may be able to rehome via craigslist. My daughter used craigslist to give away an aggressive rooster, and someone came and got him within an hour of posting.

 

[Saveria]

I actually just wrote an article with ideas for this, some of them already listed, though.

It is a common position to be in, for sure.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/tips-for-re-homing-cockerels-and-roosters.78704/