Rooster Gone Sour

[Folly's place]

"Nasty roosters taste best". Words to live by.
Mary

 

[ILuvsChicks]

Yes, yes they did!

LOL, I just about fell out when I saw that clip. LOL. Thanks made my day.

Sounds like this 'owner' of the rooster is unable to care for chickens at home.
So it was left there.
But a rooster like that can not be at a place open to the public.
I've had roosters like that. Taste pretty good when cooked slow with rice.

 

[Buff-Blondie]

This bird is all muscle anyway. He looks like he hit the weight room or something. Either or, he would probably be big enough to feed a family of five or more. The only thing is he may belong to the farm, so I'm not sure if he can be eaten or not.

 

[ValerieJ]

Handling chicks does not necessarily make them people friendly when they mature. It is particularly perilous with cockerels.
May I suggest you read this.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/understanding-your-rooster.75056/

Excellent article!

 

[Kris5902]

Thank you so much for sharing this article with me! The aggression part of the article was very helpful at explaining why Clux may be acting out. All of Clux's hens are following a different rooster now; he lost his dominance to another rooster named Bigmouth recently. His tail feathers are broken from fighting so much! We also have five roosters now and I understand it's one rooster per ten hens; we have 19 hens. The weather is also changing, however, it isn't spring so I'm not sure if it's a mating thing or not. He probably wants my dominance since the hens follow me everywhere and one little buff Orpington wants me to hold her all the time (that's her in my profile picture). I know that roosters do not like the color red, but would this also apply to different bright colors like yellows and greens? I've also read that giving the rooster treats shows him that you're not a rooster and don't want to fight; roosters don't double as food dispensers! I think all of this information will come in handy for me in the future, but it's unfortunate that Clux is still on public property. I think Clux still likes my friend and I'm starting to wonder if he can take the bird home himself. I just don't want anyone to get hurt or have legal issues rise to the point that the farm needs to be closed.

Hope you can resolve this with the help of management, and maybe your friend, soon. With my more “assertive” boys I also make a point of not feeding their hens, I usually give them the treats and let him dispense them. One will actually take the mealworms gently (well, usually gently) from my fingertips one at a time and feed them to his ladies. We are still working on our relationship, because oh boy, did puberty ever change him! In the morning he will still challenge me as soon as I let everyone out, but he settles down by afternoon usually.

I think one of them has almost made a game of it, he doesn’t actually try to flog me anymore... he’s just putting on a good show of his dominance for his ladies! He knows I’m not afraid of him and he can’t really hurt me. He actually waits until I’ve exited the pen and closed the door then charges the corner to “scare me off” and defend the girls

I really do feel for all parties involved, except management that seems to be avoiding taking responsibility or action on the situation. You didn’t deserve to be put in a dangerous situation or be injured. The public shouldn’t be placed (unwittingly) in a similar situation. The Rooster shouldn’t be put in a position where he has to act like this, or face being culled for acting normally. Most of those roosters will need to find new homes of one sort or another. I would suggest keeping the calmest roosters only for public interaction, especially with the limited and (it sounds like) often inexperienced volunteer staff for supervision.

 

[aart]

I hope you've been to the doctor's about your injuries, and have an up to date tetanus vaccine on board!!! Get on it today if you haven't, and charge it all to the farm owner, who's responsible, very likely legally, depending on where you live.
...

Exactly and Absolutely.

 

[Shadrach]

Excellent article!

Thank you.

 

[JudithM]

If that rooster were around here.. he would suddenly disappear! JMHO

 

[Karen Glatz]

So, print out this forum and hand it to the manager, the owner and if necessary to animal control.

 

[mosander]

Hello. I'm new here. I work on a historic farm that is open to the public and help take care of 30+ chickens (we got some new babies and more on the way). One of the roosters, who my friend named Clux, has recently lost his dominance. Over the summer, he used to have a ton of hens following him everywhere and he was nice to me (except he did treat me as a subordinate hen as the months went on), but he has become extremely aggressive this past month. At the time Clux was friendly, we only had three roosters: Clux, a small runt named Nugget, and a fiesty and skittish rooster named Loudmouth. We now have two more grown roosters. Out of all the roosters, Clux is the only one who attacks children, hens, other roosters, and now me (who he is probably fighting because he sees me as either a threat or because he wants my dominance). I liked this rooster and the other worker who owns him wants to keep him and let the other friendly roosters go, but now I'm really scared of Clux. He made me bleed really badly tonight with his spurs (glad I wore my new farm pants instead of shorts). My friend argues that we should keep Clux since "he's the best rooster we have," but wouldn't it make more sense to dispose of Clux and keep the friendly roosters instead? Would getting rid of the nice roosters make Clux friendly again? Is it a good idea to keep this bird at all? I'm afraid to volunteer now because this bird apparently means more than my own and other people's safety!