Please do NOT ever carry a rooster up side down by the feet. They literally can not breathe. They don't have a diaphragm and all their organs will be compressing their lungs. So they calm because they can NOT breathe properly. It is cruel, so unless you are getting ready to butcher, otherwise, don't use it as a method to discipline. I just wanted to make sure folks know this.
Anyway, I ALSO have had too many roos chase me as soon as my back is turned and I really wish I understood why. I only come, and feed you guys! I never rush, or try to scare you. I don't get the turning the back, means attack me. If it is an animal thing, what is it? Many a farmer I have known that in the instanced the bull charged, it was when they turned their back to him. Never to the face. Weird?!
They have a clear, thin membrane separating their abdominal viscera from their chest cavity...if you'd ever butchered a chicken you'd know that. That membrane holds back any abdominal viscera from advancing into the chest cavity where the heart and lungs are located, even if a bird is held upside down. Their lungs are also tucked into the spaces created by their ribs, unlike a human, so even if the viscera were to place pressure on that membrane, the chickens can still breathe efficiently if their ribs are not being compressed from the sides.
They have multiple air sacs~apart from the lungs~ that are part of their respiratory system, so they don't breathe like us at all...so constricting the SIDES of the bird can cause more respiratory distress then hanging one upside down, as they need to be able to move certain muscles that move bones in their chest cavity in order to create the negative pressure it takes for them to breath. So, when you folks are holding birds in your arms too tightly, it can cause more respiratory distress than holding a bird upside down.
So, literally, they CAN breath. They calm because they quickly tire of trying to right themselves from the upside down position as they fight against their whole body weight to do so. That's why heavy birds calm down much more quickly than do the lighter weight and/or younger birds.
I've been carrying/transporting birds that way for 40 yrs and have yet to see it cause any harm or difficulty with respiration with any bird I've carried that way. People have been carrying chickens that way since the beginning of time. If it were harmful to them, they wouldn't do it....farmers care about their livestock's wellbeing and can't afford to lose them over careless handling, so if holding a rooster upside down was harmful to him, it wouldn't be performed.
Enter the urban chicken owner, who places human emotions and feelings on common farming practices and you have people stating as fact that holding a chicken upside down is cruel and can kill them. It's not true. Period. I guess if you were to leave that bird there for a long period of time he may die, but a simple upside down hold for carrying, moving, or just to get them off the roosts is not a bit harmful to those birds. On the other hand, a small child holding a chick too tightly or holding a hen too tightly in his arms can indeed kill a chicken because the bird's ribs are too tightly compressed for good air exchange.
It could just be possible you don't understand why your roosters are chasing you simply because you don't understand the animal you are keeping at all.
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