Rooster Spurs?

[JerseyGiantfolk]

Quote: He cares for his own hens, but won't get along with any other hens that don't live in his pen. He has a great personality: easy to catch, never has shown aggression, has done very well at shows.

I recall when he was younger, his first and only hen was brooding chicks. He HIMSELF went broody, and we had to look all over for him until we found him between some pallets of wood, growling at us. Those chicks became his next flock members, and he wanted to care for them like he was the broody mama. He is about 5 or 6 right now, and herds up his own girls so he can see them and sits in the laying box with them whenever they need to lay an egg.

Maybe he is just a very territorial papa rooster of his hens and doesn't want anybody bothering them.

 

[ClareScifi]

Oh, he sounds like a delight. Please don't kill him! What is his name, and could you post a picture?

Why not write a Picturebook for children about him. His behavior is so interesting!

 

[ClareScifi]

JerseyGiantFolk,

I would love to see a picture of your rooster! Here is a picture of mine. He has grown a lot since the Avatar picture which was taken 1 year ago:

 

[ClareScifi]

Yippee! No more bleeding combs. I think it was just a freak accident...

 

[Chambertin]

good for you, and even better for the chickens.
Thanks for the update, glad everything is better~

 

[CHICKEN CRAZY1]

You can remove the spurs at home by taking a hot potato (heated for 10 mins.then cut in half.) covering the roo's legs and (using good gloves of course) put them on his spurs.Then remove the potato and snap off his spurs. ( don't know if this works yet.)

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

You can remove the spurs at home by taking a hot potato (heated for 10 mins.then cut in half.) covering the roo's legs and (using good gloves of course) put them on his spurs.Then remove the potato and snap off his spurs. ( don't know if this works yet.)

I just take a good sturdy pair of pliers, grip firmly (not tightly) at the base of the spur. I then rock the pliers with the spur back and forth slowly. There should be a pop/click and the spur should come right off.

I have never had a rooster bleed more than 3 drops. Most don't even bleed at all.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

You can remove the spurs at home by taking a hot potato (heated for 10 mins.then cut in half.) covering the roo's legs and (using good gloves of course) put them on his spurs.Then remove the potato and snap off his spurs. ( don't know if this works yet.)

I just take a good sturdy pair of pliers, grip firmly (not tightly) at the base of the spur. I then rock the pliers with the spur back and forth slowly. There should be a pop/click and the spur should come right off.

I have never had a rooster bleed more than 3 drops. Most don't even bleed at all.

Remember, this just takes off the spur cap, not the entire spur. Don't try to pull off the whole spur, just try to slide the hard cap off. A shorter, duller spur will remain on the bird. This is probably what you meant, Chicken Crazy, and JerseyGiantFolk, but "snap off his spur" "spur should come right off" isn't really what's happening, and I don't want someone to really injure their bird.

This is what we did when our RIR's spurs got so long he (probably accidentally) sliced up a hen during mating. Worked like a charm. We didn't get much blood, either. Sprayed the spurs with BluCote and never had a problem.

 

[debid]

I had a rooster that was good with people and seemed fine with his hens other than needing more because he was baring all of their backs. The problem was with adding new hens to the flock. I didn't get chicks, I got three pullets at or near POL. He only liked one of them. A second was tolerated and mostly ignored. But the third, he just plain didn't like and was relentless about chasing. So, I took him out of the coop but in view of the ladies. Once things cooled between the the hens and new pullets, I thought he'd no longer view any of them as a threat to his girls and he'd accept them. I was wrong. Things seemed OK the day I put him back in but as soon as I wasn't right there watching, he killed the one he didn't like. Pretty much ripped her head off. And he was the only one covered in blood so there was no doubt which chicken had done it.

So, I'll predict that even if he's OK with his little flock, you'll face unpredictability and possibly horrifying results when you eventually need to replace hens due to losses or want to add some for other reasons. As good as my rooster was in other ways, I couldn't stomach keeping him knowing that he might kill again. And, it made me wonder about the seemingly healthy hen that dropped dead shortly after the pop door was opened one morning. I'd never suspected him but in hindsight, the physical evidence was there. Maybe he broke her neck because she wasn't cooperative with the morning's hormone surge? I'll never know but she was face-down by the ramp, dirt stuck to her face/beak. And that was a grown hen he'd been raised with!

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

I had a rooster that was good with people and seemed fine with his hens other than needing more because he was baring all of their backs. The problem was with adding new hens to the flock. I didn't get chicks, I got three pullets at or near POL. He only liked one of them. A second was tolerated and mostly ignored. But the third, he just plain didn't like and was relentless about chasing. So, I took him out of the coop but in view of the ladies. Once things cooled between the the hens and new pullets, I thought he'd no longer view any of them as a threat to his girls and he'd accept them. I was wrong. Things seemed OK the day I put him back in but as soon as I wasn't right there watching, he killed the one he didn't like. Pretty much ripped her head off. And he was the only one covered in blood so there was no doubt which chicken had done it.

So, I'll predict that even if he's OK with his little flock, you'll face unpredictability and possibly horrifying results when you eventually need to replace hens due to losses or want to add some for other reasons. As good as my rooster was in other ways, I couldn't stomach keeping him knowing that he might kill again. And, it made me wonder about the seemingly healthy hen that dropped dead shortly after the pop door was opened one morning. I'd never suspected him but in hindsight, the physical evidence was there. Maybe he broke her neck because she wasn't cooperative with the morning's hormone surge? I'll never know but she was face-down by the ramp, dirt stuck to her face/beak. And that was a grown hen he'd been raised with!

I think this must be really rare. I've never heard of this behavior before. We replace three year old hens every year with new pullets, and our RIR rooster is getting on six years old. He's NEVER intentionally harmed a hen (he did spur one hen once, but we think it was an accident since his spurs were so long). He does have his favorites, and one poor Wyandotte gets pretty bare, but I've never seen him do more than peck a hen's head or butt to keep her in line. And he's never been aggressive to the 18 week pullets when we combine flocks. We also have two other boys in the same flock, and they've never harmed a hen, either.

These aren't our first roosters, and our previous boys all had new hens added to their flock and older hens taken away with no issues other than some pecking to show the new hens that they were in charge. We had one boy that was rough on everyone, but even Mr. Coq a Vin didn't kill a hen.