Hi all! This is our first experience with chickens. We have 10 whom will be 16 weeks tomorrow that we have raised from 1 day old. One is a rooster which was a total surprise to us but we are trying to make it work. He is very protective of the flock which I understand is normal but it was getting to the point that he did not want my husband myself or 5 kids around them. Every morning when opening the coop, feeding them etc he would try to run us off. This was hard as they are pets to my children- they walk around all day holding and spending time with them. After reading some techniques about handling roosters I tried to adapt them here and it has worked for myself and husband and 3 oldest kids. What we did was when the rooster was running at us or trying to attack us we would stand our ground until he was the one to walk away. When he was aggressive we would all consistently do the same thing. Either hold him down to the ground for 30 seconds or so, gently but firmly until he calmed down and walked off. Sometimes we also pick him up walk around the yard and talk to him put him down and he walks off fine. Never yelling at him or causing any harm, just trying to show him we are boss. The issue we are now having is that he is not respectful to my two little ones who are 3 and almost 2. They are super gentle with the chickens but have not established that same dominance with him as we have. He attacked my 3 year olds face yesterday and she is terrified of him now. He has also jumped on the baby’s head scratching his ear and he no longer wants to go to see the chickens. I didn’t want to give up and really wanted to work with our rooster Captain but is this just over our heads? Im trying my best but at the same time we can’t have our children being harmed. We are only on 2 acres. The backyard is 1 acre and that consists of our patio pool chicken coop and playground. The chickens have free range of the backyard while we are outside so it’s hard to keep the rooster away from the little ones. Any ideas or advice is much appreciated. My husband and I have never been around chickens let alone roosters! Thanks so much for reading this!
Claire
Claire
