Rooster training

[Nakoda]

Does anyone have any ideas on some rooster training? Our Alpha rooster Brutus is for the most part very friendly & is easily picked up and follows me around all the time. In the mornings however he is ... maybe grumpy and when I go into their chicken run he will do a funny dance beside me & then peck at me? My 4 year old also says that he tries to peck at him but it’s always when my back is turned. When he pecks ar me I just pick him up for a minute then put him down & he seems fine..... does anyone have any suggestions

or ideas? We all really love him but I don’t want this to escalate & have him scare or hurts one of our kids I know this may be a silly question but any advice I am appreciative of

 

[MysteryChicken]

My training for all chickens of both sexes is holding them at day one, & through adulthood. I don't pick up adult birds all the time though.

I also wear red, & talk to them. My method works for me.

I've had very few aggressive cockerels/roosters. If they do turn up, they become a meal.

 

[bobbi-j]

I’d watch him very closely with your kids. Things can go badly very quickly. First thing I’d do is quit treating him like a pet. As soon as I recognize a cockerel, it’s hands off. I will walk towards them, through them, and back them up. I move them away from food and water just because I can. If they start staking me or getting in my space, giving me “the look”, to giving me any other reason to suspect they’re thinking bad thoughts, I will turn around and walk right at them. I don’t chase them or act aggressively, just decisively. I haven’t had a problem rooster since I started raising them this way.

Now having said all that, I will add that training him to respect you, does not mean he will respect your kids. At the first sign of aggression toward them, he’d be gone if he were mine.

 

[CluckerFamily]

I’d watch him very closely with your kids. Things can go badly very quickly. First thing I’d do is quit treating him like a pet. As soon as I recognize a cockerel, it’s hands off. I will walk towards them, through them, and back them up. I move them away from food and water just because I can. If they start staking me or getting in my space, giving me “the look”, to giving me any other reason to suspect they’re thinking bad thoughts, I will turn around and walk right at them. I don’t chase them or act aggressively, just decisively. I haven’t had a problem rooster since I started raising them this way.

Now having said all that, I will add that training him to respect you, does not mean he will respect your kids. At the first sign of aggression toward them, he’d be gone if he were mine.

Great advice!!

 

[kcrandall]

When your rooster does this dance is one wing pointed stiffly toward the ground? If so then he is performing a mating dance. He views you as part of his harem.

 

[Mayhaps Moss]

I used to have an Orpington rooster who I had an unspoken rule with; I leave you alone, you leave me alone. In hindsight however, if for example he had gotten sick, this probably would have made things a lot harder.
I agree to be careful with your kids, a friend of mine was attacked by a rooster when she was a child, and now she is mortally afraid of chickens.