rooster rant

[greathorse]

Make a distinct point of walking right at/through that rooster when you go to the yard. Even if he is minding his own business you walk at him with a firm and steady stride and if he doesnt get out of your way move him with your foot. You dont have to boot him into the next county but for sure boost him away from you. If he doesnt move along on his own do it again. I do this until the rooster moves along if he sees me coming.

If you start messing with the hens, picking them up and so forth and he comes after you, thats a good rooster. I think some folks get into trouble with the rooster because they want to fiddle with the hens. Any self respecting rooster will at the minimum come over and fuss at you and tell you to leave them alone. My rooster will sort fuss in a circle but will not charge me if I need to pick up a hen for some reasonl

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I second what Greathorse said.

I raised a number of roos with the "pick them up" methods, hanging them upside down, restraining them, and so forth. I still got roos that would try to seriously attack and had to be smacked with a board to finally stop it.

I've also raised a lot of roos like Greathorse said. Never picked them up (well, I picked one of them up cuz he refused to run but he's in my freezer now). Anytime I go in the chicken yard, I walk at a roo. Like I'm going to walk right over the top of him. If he doesn't run, I will reach out and grab his tail. They almost always ran at first. When they run, I might follow them again until they run away again. Then I will generally leave them alone. If any of them DARES to mount a hen while I'm out there, I do the same thing the head roo does -- I run over there quick and chase him off her.

When my roos see me coming, they get OUT of my way. I've never had to hurt any of them. I just act like I'm going to (or I used to) and they believe me. I don't tolerate any roo behavior towards me. They don't even try anymore.

If I cause a hen to fuss (catching her or something) they come running, and skid to a stop when they see it's me. I don't punish them for that. And if I had to do anything that would seriously look like I was hurting a hen, I'd take her out of sight.

Oh, and when I put out scraps or scratch or treats, I call the girls over and I might boot the roos away. I usually leave quick so I don't have to, but I noticed only the head roo gets any. He runs the other roos away from food.

All that said though -- I just raised mine this way. I had WAY too many roos and had to slaughter most of them. I did cull based on behavior, but it was them preventing others (including hens) from entering the coop, or fighting with hens, or in the case of my BAs just being poor genetic stock. I haven't had to cull any for being aggressive to me. I would in a heartbeat though. Roos are easy to come by and there are not enough homes for the good roos out there.

 

[sugarjax06]

Thank you all for your advise! I went out today with tennis shoes and high socks on instead of my usual flip flops so I could run over those roos. I could see the look in their eyes, like what are you doing?! Especially when they weren't allowed to eat the fresh goodies! Alpha roo spent most of his time under the tree or in the run so seems like he was avoiding me. I'll keep practicing! I would much prefer to do this than have to pick him up since I could get bitten or scratched a lot easier that way. We will see how the next couple of days go. If things don't improve then we may have to give them away.

Seems like one mistake we made with the last butchering was not freezing them. They were only 6 months old so age shouldn't have made them tough.

I really appreciated your wisdom! I wish I had an experienced chicken owner close by who could show us the ropes but ya'll are a great help!
And thank you for the welcome!

 

[wildorchid053]

holding them works so well.. we had one and we named him earl.. like the dixie chicks.. earl's gonna die.. but after much handling and petting he has become the sweetest roo. it takes about 2 weeks of handling and petting.. like 5 min each time. but i can walk up to him now and pick him or his girls up without a fuss at all.. try holding him and hand feeding him scratch.

 

[Yazzo]

If you're still having problems, I wrote a really long tutorial/thread about how to deal with aggressive roosters: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=390911 Some people think that the only solution is killing, but I haven't met a SINGLE rooster, no matter how aggressive, that I couldn't deal with, and it should be the same with everyone else.