Rooster Turning Aggressive

[McChooky]

View attachment 4097041
Here he is.

He is 53 weeks old.

He was in a group of 32 baby chicks we received a year ago. From that group, we are down to him and one hen.

He has always been a good rooster and has not shown any aggression until recently.

I sold 4 of his 5 remaining hens about a month ago and I noticed that he was getting more aggressive after that. He might be blaming for the loss of his hens. Probably not.

We also have 8 16 week olds and 5 13 week old cockerels and pullets in an adjacent run/coop. I am trying to integrate these with the older rooster and hen. They are in the “look but cannot touch” stage with some supervised free-ranging where both groups can mingle and if anything gets out of hand I will step in. That has been going on for about 2 weeks now. Perhaps he see me as the “rooster” of this larger group and wants to displace me. Probably not.

It may just come down to hormones.

I've had 2 roosters turn on me after getting rid of hens.THey belong to him or so he thinks

 

[Mrs. K]

I agreee with a lot of what you say. However, you did leave out (IMO) two rather important part os having roosters, space and interactions with hens.

Again IMO, people that tend to have consistently good luck with roosters tend to have very large flocks - and very large spaces to keep them. Occasionally, even then one will get a rotten rooster. I think we all naturally tend to give advice from the view point of our own coop. IMO roosters take more space than hens. If you have a very small backyard flock for a few eggs, in a very small coop, I would say no to roosters.

Some roosters add so much to the flock, a flock master is a joy to have in the flock. But not all roosters are flock masters, most are fair roosters, and some are terrible to hens, or people or both.

O think most of us, who have been in this game a long time, kept the first rotten rooster too long. The longer I keep birds, the less I think that it really has much to do with people, but more of the luck of the draw. It is a vey small brain to train.

Inexperienced people can vastly underestimate the violence of an aggressive bird. Most aggression gets worse and worse. I have never behaved so that I deserved to be beaten up, and I do not keep an aggressive bird or advise others to do so. A lot of it is hormonal, and training has limited effect on that. I think that when you have had success what happened is there was enough time that the hormones dropped .

Some roosters are terrible to other birds, this is especially true in smaller set ups. They can damage or kill other birds. They don't call it cock fighting for nothing. Again space is a huge issue in this. Multiple roosters can wear out the hens.

Always solve for peace in the flock you have in the space that you have right now. Chickens don;t wait for a bigger coop or run. Some birds work well together, and some birds do not, even if you have the correct square footage or you free range all day. Chickens did not read the book, as to this is what they are suppose to work in.

I think your advice is very good, and I follow it myself. I really liked your point on fear aggression and familiarity aggression. But I think there is a genetic aggression too. I don't think it should be indicating that peoples interaction with chickens will work with all roosters. Good husbandry is removing a bird for the benefit of the flock and the safety of humans.

Mrs K

 

[BantyChooks]

I agreee with a lot of what you say. However, you did leave out (IMO) two rather important part os having roosters, space and interactions with hens.

Again IMO, people that tend to have consistently good luck with roosters tend to have very large flocks - and very large spaces to keep them. Occasionally, even then one will get a rotten rooster. I think we all naturally tend to give advice from the view point of our own coop. IMO roosters take more space than hens. If you have a very small backyard flock for a few eggs, in a very small coop, I would say no to roosters.

Some roosters add so much to the flock, a flock master is a joy to have in the flock. But not all roosters are flock masters, most are fair roosters, and some are terrible to hens, or people or both.

O think most of us, who have been in this game a long time, kept the first rotten rooster too long. The longer I keep birds, the less I think that it really has much to do with people, but more of the luck of the draw. It is a vey small brain to train.

Inexperienced people can vastly underestimate the violence of an aggressive bird. Most aggression gets worse and worse. I have never behaved so that I deserved to be beaten up, and I do not keep an aggressive bird or advise others to do so. A lot of it is hormonal, and training has limited effect on that. I think that when you have had success what happened is there was enough time that the hormones dropped .

Some roosters are terrible to other birds, this is especially true in smaller set ups. They can damage or kill other birds. They don't call it cock fighting for nothing. Again space is a huge issue in this. Multiple roosters can wear out the hens.

Always solve for peace in the flock you have in the space that you have right now. Chickens don;t wait for a bigger coop or run. Some birds work well together, and some birds do not, even if you have the correct square footage or you free range all day. Chickens did not read the book, as to this is what they are suppose to work in.

I think your advice is very good, and I follow it myself. I really liked your point on fear aggression and familiarity aggression. But I think there is a genetic aggression too. I don't think it should be indicating that peoples interaction with chickens will work with all roosters. Good husbandry is removing a bird for the benefit of the flock and the safety of humans.

Mrs K

Thanks for your comments. If you read the article I posted (after the initial forum post of mine that OP quoted,) I’ve since refined my viewpoint to include exactly those factors you mentioned! I agree that space and setup are incredibly important and touched on multigenerational flocks as well, along with genetic and age influence.

Agree with your points & thanks for the discussion.

 

[BantyChooks]

That is to provide some context.

On noticing he seemed to becoming more aggressive, I started to “walk through” him when I had the chance.

As he was now starting to sideways dance towards me over the last couple of days, I reviewed some of the commentary on dealing with aggressive roosters on this site and I am going to try BantyChooks suggestions.

I will let you know how it goes.

@CalgaryFarmer Any updates?

 

[CalgaryFarmer]

Thank you for asking.

With my rooster, it is a familiarity-based aggression.

When I am sitting at our fire pit, he would walk down our path from the coop area. I would get up from my chair and walk quickly towards him to keep him out of my space, 2 or 3 quick steps until he turns and jumps away.

I do not think this “chasing away” will cause fear-based aggression. This is what roosters do to other roosters who are lower in the pecking order and they are all familiar with each other. I know this way I am inserting myself into the pecking order, which is not helpful. But also, his aggression towards me is likely because he sees me as part of the flock dynamic.

After these “short chases”, he would then walk most of the way up the path and then turn and walk into the tall grass to get to the fire pit area. This was quite effective. He would do this for a while end then start going all the way up the path and into my personal space - testing my boundaries I guess - so I would repeat.

I have tried the “move through him” and “pushing him out of my personal space with my boot” and “square body stance” and nothing really changed, or the change would not last very long. It may be that I did not start early enough with him.

I think a large part of the issue is that I do not have sufficient interaction with my chickens. When my rooster sees me, I am thinking that he is saying to himself “Him again! He just doesn’t learn!” If you think about it, he has been with his harem for 8 or so hours and you have not been around so he may not be happy that you have shown up again and is thinking “what can I do to make him go away”. I also found the less I am around the worse his behaviour is - as it got colder here, I spend less time outside.

All that said, the rooster is not that aggressive on the aggressiveness scale. He displays the walking sideways towards me with a wing lowered, picks up and drops stuff while staring at me, immediately starts to crow when I am around (he does not crow much) and gives the ground predator vocalization when I come into view. He has not tried to flog me but I am always looking over my shoulder if I have to turn my back to him.

I think these extended absences from your chickens make it hard to change their behaviour.

I have been trying what I call the “5 gallon spa therapy”. I fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and let it come to air temperature. If he displays any aggressive behaviour, I immediately pick him up and give him a bath. You obviously have to be careful or you will drown him. As well, you can only do this when it is warm enough outside and he has sufficient time to dry off during the day. I have not done this enough to come to any conclusion but it seemed to work well the few times I have done it. The trick is to pick him up immediately and bathe him. The theory I am going on is that this is so outside any chicken-to-chicken interaction that perhaps he may stop seeing me as part of that dynamic.

All that said, I am not sure I will be able to change his behaviour, in part, because I do not interact with him enough to provide consistent and regular corrections.

Unless he actually flogs me, I intend on keeping him. Perhaps one of his offspring will be less aggressive.

 

[Mrs. K]

I really don't think roosters "think'. I think they just are. I don't try and train mine. I really think the way you get the best rooster, is you don't keep a less than perfect one. Perfect is your own personal definition.

I would be constantly aware of him, as he ages - hormones tend to drop, but with the spring, they tend to rise.

Mrs K