Rooster Keeps Attacking me!

[Barn Maid Ann]

Some good advice here!

So I have 4 roos. I know, I know... too many for the 16 hens.
None of them bothered me, but started attacking DH when he went out to give the horses hay. He would always throw the chickens some scratch and/or BOSS, too. Then the boys started flogging his legs as he turned to leave.
Now that I am following some of the advice from here, such as not letting them breed the hens in my presence, *I* have become a victim of attack. My alpha guy, who has been my little buddy, doesn't like me grabing up the other offending roos and has come at me in a mild kind of way. Almost more of a warning. I know it is upsetting to him that I am causing a ruckus. But I have grabbed him up for his offense. And catching these suckers causes way more ruckus than any flap they cause.

My question is, if I were to get rid of one or two, which ones? I really would like to keep at least two particular ones... my White-faced Black Spanish and my brown Leghorn. And they are the least of the problems. I have two Andalusians and would like to keep the splash, but he is big and dumb and tends to be the one we have to correct, which gets the alpha guy after us. The alpha guy is black and not one I ever wanted to keep, but he is such a good gentle rooster with the girls.
Plus, I have never 'culled' any of my chickens.

I guess it gets easier, if you do it often enough.
I am just hoping the weather gets better and they can free range again, and things will settle down with more space between us all.

 

[Southerngirl]

Hmm.... Chicken n dumplins, Chicken pot pie, Chicken Casserole etc.etc I will never keep a mean roo. It is not worth the pain and suffering on your part. A banty roo is meaner than a standard roo sometimes !!!

 

[newbie coops]

I have a rooster that for the most part (NH Red) was actually quite docile and afraid of all...however, today he went after me after I picked up a hen and tossed her gently back into the coop. He went after my shins...big mistake.

I have gloves on while working inside the hen house and have psyched this rooster out before. I grabbed him, immobilised his wings and grabbed his legs - thus rendering him beholden to me. Then, I read him the riot act and essentially let him know that I AM THE HEAD ROOSTER HERE, GOT THAT???

He got it and seems to have learned his lesson.

 

[CountryMom]

You know we went through this with a Muscovy Drake that we raised (mind you kid raised) for my FIL. He mainly started going after the kids. One day as my youngest went running and the drake chasing with my FIL standing right there I bent down and scooped up that drake as he ran past. From then on everytime he took an idea to flogging any of us we picked him up. My oldest did chores with him under her arm. She even picked him up one day when he went after her and one of the ponies. She promptly got in the saddle with the drake under her arm and went on for a ride. Needless to say that drake avoids all humans like the plague!


When my young black Orp roo decided to try to flog my two girls for the first time (he was just discovering he was a roo) they started picking him up and carrying him around. He went after each of us once - and we all picked him up and carried him. And for a few weeks after that we would pick him up whenever we could catch him even if he wasn't attacking us. Now he hasn't tried again. And he hasn't seemed to even want to try any visitors - and we had a lot in December.

So obviously carrying them around did the trick. If it had not I would have gladly made soup or roast duck!

 

[Buster]

Has anyone recommended Rooster-red's personal page on Dealing with aggressive roosters? Very informative and helpful information there.

 

[CountryMom]

You know I read her article after we had all the dealings with the Muscovy Drake. It sure made me feel better about how we handled it. There was not an option to kick the rooster or be overly aggressive since there were my FIL's birds and not ours.

Where is it posted on here Buster? We need a link.

 

[Buster]

Here is the link to the page for dealing with aggressive roosters. Rooster-red did a good job with it. Some roos can't be worked with and some can. I use a lot of his info on a regular basis with all my roosters just as basic guidelines to follow. I never leave them an option about whether I'm the head rooster.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2588-Roo_behavior

 

[Beekissed]

Colorado, excellent post!!!! Now THAT post needs stickied somewhere, as it is the best, most logical explanation I've heard yet about what to do with roosters!

I've always done just this...but, of course, just out of instinct and not prior knowledge...and it works 100%!!!! My roos are comfortable in my presence, but they are always watching....just like they are with each other!

They know I'm alpha, next is Sue, next in line is Sweet Lou and then Tobias. It all filters down and its the natural order of things. I don't let one of the other roos discipline a lower roo in my presence, I don't let them mount a hen and I don't let them eat while I'm there feeding~the hens may, but not the roos....they have to wait until I've left the building. I have some good, sweet roos now that I can afford to turn my back upon, because they wouldn't dream of approaching me aggressively now.

 

[azsandschool]

I have two roosters, one is black and a real beauty, and as mean as he is pretty! We got our chickens from Murray Mc Murray and he was the "special chick". The kinder gentler roo is a RIR, but I'm concerned that if I get rid of the aggressive one the mild one might go mean in his place. Has anyone seen this happen? Its gotten to the point that my kids don't like to take care of the chickens anymore! The funny thing is that the kids don't want me to, what is the kind word, cull the special chick.

go figure!

 

[007Dawn]

My rooster was very gentle and followed me around BUT we have one hen who is so mean you wouldn't believe it.

I got her to stop attacking me by scouping her up and then pecking her head with my finger. I set her back down. She tried to peck me but I pecked her again with my finger several times.

This took place about two more times and then bam...now she attacks everyone but me.