Rooster is attacking me, new behavior, help

[donrae]

Well, I'm generally one of the "invite him to dinner" camp, but wanted to comment on your pig analogy. Pretty much all animals do that. My dominant horse makes the beta horse move away from her. Same with my dogs. I do it with all my animals. My alpha horse gets tired of it, you can see her roll her eyes and sigh, but she moves away when I ask her to, every time. It's pretty much all I ever do with my roosters, just have them move away from me. I don't handle my birds at all, but just moving through the flock from when they're young and with my body language pushing them away. Once they learn to yield at that early age, I've rarely had a dominance challenge.

I do hope your rooster continues to behave well for you.

 

[Chickroo]

Yes, this is the correct thing to do. I often carry my roo around under my arm as a way of letting him know who is in charge. So far he seems to respect everyone. If he were to get aggressive the head trick would be a go to approach with me as well. Glad you have begun to make progress with this. Roosters can be so great to have!!!

 

[Victoria-nola]

Oh, yes, I'm definitely keeping an eye on him. But we worked out in the yard, raising the fence line to keep the hens inside our property, all afternoon, and the rooster was respectful. Joey was saying how markedly different the roo is acting.

I posted your advice, Sharon, on another thread, and one person came back saying she didn't have the time to spend holding the rooster every day. I'm like, um... she only had to do it once or twice ever with all except one roo, and he only requires a refresher every few months, is that really so much to ask?

 

[Victoria-nola]

I love having the rooster. For most of the 20 years I wanted chickens, before getting them, I figured I'd have a flock with no rooster. Then when the time came to actually get the chickens, I found I really did want to include a roo. And he is so interesting to me. I like watching their whole thing together as a flock. So yeah, I want to keep him and I want to break through with communication.

The pig analogy: That's what other people with pet pigs say, that their other animals, horses in particular, do the Move The Herdmate thing. And similar to what I've seen here about chickens, a number of pet pig owners with aggression issues in their pigs don't want to believe that Move The Pig really works, so they continue to struggle, while those of us who embrace the idea have no further trouble, or, if there is a challenge of any kind, we know exactly how to stop it and turn it around. But, over the years, we've continued our message to the pet pig community, and more and more it's accepted and utilized.

So it's worth it to keep talking about this as the solution, eventually more people will start listening and try it and see the results.

Btw it turns out that my handyman Joey has resistance about doing the rooster calming trick. He's got a lot of excuses about why he can't do it, but I think it comes down to a disrespect for chicken intelligence that leads to disbelief that rational interaction could create results. But one of these days I'm going to pick up my roo, demonstrate the head lowering for Joey, and then hand him the roo so he can't escape and has to at least try it.

So I'm seeing the resistance right up close. But I firmly believe that every creature is a genius in its own niche, and that the human insistence that a creature be able to communicate or behave on OUR terms and that this defines the value or intelligence of other creatures, is just stupidity on our part. In any case, my life feels better when I learn to communicate with other species, and again, I am so deeply thankful to those of you who responded to my request for help.

 

[welasharon]

Oh, yes, I'm definitely keeping an eye on him.  But we worked out in the yard, raising the fence line to keep the hens inside our property, all afternoon, and the rooster was respectful.  Joey was saying how markedly different the roo is acting.

I posted your advice, Sharon, on another thread, and one person came back saying she didn't have the time to spend holding the rooster every day.  I'm like, um... she only had to do it once or twice ever with all except one roo, and he only requires a refresher every few months, is that really so much to ask?

Yes I find it funny how many people are unwilling to simply try something new. Imagine how much wonderful stuff they must miss by being closed minded. I tried other methods as well since I desperately wanted to keep my roos and not have a disaster repeat itself and this is the one that worked for me. Keep us posted!

 

[chickadoodles]

I just got my first chicks two weeks ago. Before I even got my chicks I kept telling my DH I did not want to deal with any roos! Now of course I have 6 of them I know I cannot keep all of them, but I am probably going to keep one. I have been scared of roosters since I worked at a commercial chicken house one summer. I had to carry a big stick because they would get on top of the nesting boxes and fly at my face!
Now after reading all your posts on how to stop a roo from acting aggressive I have some hope of getting along with one or two!
Thank you for sharing!

 

[Ruth10]

I got chickens last fall and they were supposed to be all girls. Well, one is a rooster. He has been pretty well behaved up until just recently. He will eat from my hand, although a bit aggresively. Mostly just gets over-excited when I bring scratch grains for them. Well the other night after I threw some scratch down for them and was kicking some of the straw out of the way he jumped up and kicked me in the shin.I had an empty egg carton and batted him away and then he came after the egg carton. so I batted again and it caught him iin the head. I tried to get hold of him but was unsuccessful and he ran under the coop area. This morning I saw him doing a strange thing with the hens. It was almost like he was herding them. He leaned one way and put out his other wing a bit sort of like using it as a rudder and moved in a circular motion at them. Kind of like shooing them out of the way or something. What is this behavior? He is a big boy and I don't want to get rid of him so I will try the holding the head thing I just read described.

 

[Victoria-nola]

hi Ruth,
The odd behavior with the wings is the mating dance. That's normal. So is becoming more aggressive as the rooster matures. Catching it early and doing the head lowering thing early is, I think, crucial, because it stands to reason that the longer a rooster is tolerated with aggression, the more ingrained the behavior is.

My report is that the head lowering did not work for me ultimately, but I have found our rooster a new home with a friend who does urban homesteading a few blocks away and is starting a new flock. He actually wants an aggressive rooster and agrees our roo is a gorgeous bird. So to me that is a happy ending.

I allowed our rooster to intimidate my handyman and my petsitter and myself for months without doing anything at all to redirect the behavior away from humans. And, I've never had chickens before, so I'm stumbling around trying to do the best I can, but not always succeeding. So I take responsibility for not handling this problem early and often.

So, I'm not a person who can't give you advice really, except to say that addressing it early is really important. People have been able to redirect rooster behavior and live in peace, so please do give it a fair trial. I hope that some of the others from this thread will respond to you with support.

 

[Ruth10]

Thanks, he is normally not like this. But I am going to have to stop it if it continues. I am not afraid of him, but I am higher on the food chain. lol Not going to let that behavior continue. He also is a beautiful bird. He is a Buckeye. Glad your story at least had a happy ending.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Yes, the behavior is new, so now is the time to nip it in the bud, because it will continue, that's the thing. It doesn't just go away on its own. I wouldn't wait for him to be aggressive again, I would start doing the head-down thing. I wish you total success with this. I know how wrenching it is.