Rooster with an Attitude

[LaFleche]

My question is this...could the color I was wearing either time have set him off? I was wearing a bright pink shirt.

Yes. I have seen this happen here when visitors came wearing bright pink, red and neon orange clothing or clothing with bold patterns.

But no matter what triggered him, once he attacks his humans an important boundary is lost and he can do so again any time.

Don't let your grandkid even near the chicken run, some roosters just fly over the fence to attack.

Please, don't ever pass an aggressive rooster on to someone else.

I would invite him for dinner

 

[3KillerBs]

Roosters can be unpredictable.

If children are at risk, eat him.

 

[DobieLover]

Your grand child is the only reason I'm agreeing with the others to cull.

Haven't ever heard of colors triggering roosters

It does. I have a pair of pink pants my rooster HATES. I have warned my chicken sitter to avoid red or bright colors when he is in the pen.

Roosters like this can be rehabilitated. I did mine and he is the best rooster I could hope for the flock to have. He is now 4 years old and still doing an incredible job.

Incidentally, using your feet to ward him off was basically answering his challenge for a fight and that is why he didn't back down.

It takes a lot of behavior modification on your part to change his attitude. But, again, kids are involved so that really leaves you with two options: put him in your freezer or rehome him with full disclosure so someone else can do it or take a shot at rehabbing him.

 

[Shadrach]

Yes roosters can react to changes in their keepers appearance. They don't change their appearance so they don't expect to find their keeper change theirs either.
Bright colours and flappy garments are to be discouraged.
You don't mention how old he is but roosters do the teenage boy bit. It takes 18 months at least for a rooster to properly settle down ime.
Roosters kept in runs are often a problem. If the keeper defines the roosters territory then quite reasonably it becomes his territory and one of the roles of the male in most species is to defend their territory and their females.
Unfortunately there is a world of difference between keeping a few hens and keeping chickens. There is also a world of difference between domesticated and tame.
This may seem like a very stupid comment but it bears thinking about. Rooster are not male hens. One needs to fully understand this.
Like DobieLover mentions, given you have children who it seems you wish to have interacting with the chickens and there are already problems the best option is to rehome the rooster if you can.
Do not fall for the arguement that you have just got a bad rooster and another rooster will necessarily behave any different. You can end up killing an awful lot of roosters until you find one that behaves in a way you find acceptable.

Finally, if you are interested in rooster behaviour and would like a better understanding of their behaviour this article may help.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/understanding-your-rooster.75056/

 

[Folly's place]

@BantyChooks and @Beekissed also have good articles about managing roosters, look them up also. Shad has a totally different flock management situation, not what you have with a small flock in confinement.
IMO this guy has already 'crossed the line' and needs to go! Rehoming him is a bad idea, unless it's to someone who will be making that soup stock.
Mary
And making him safe for you might be possible, but he'll attack any other humans he meets, making him dangerous.

 

[3KillerBs]

Just a sort of future reference note:

When I was brand new I was informed about how chickens sometimes react to changes in keepers' clothing so I have made a point of going out to the coop in different outfits, different colors, etc.

They've had to see me in jeans, shorts, and skirts. Wearing red and blue and green and black and yellow and purple. WIth a hat or not. In gloves or not. With a different hat. My hair up or loose. The only constant is my rubber muck boots.

I talk to them and they know from my voice that it's me.

 

[Folly's place]

And about your color choices in clothing, it should all be irrelevant! My birds know who I am regardless. And they don't see humans as threats, our four roosters and one cockerel are busy with their flockmates, and I'm the giant who brings food, not another chicken to be pushed around. Same for friends and family who might be out there with them.
We've had human aggressive cockerels, and our first rooster was a serious attack bird. We learned! It gets easier to 'read' behaviors, so you can see early indications that a specific cockerel is getting bad ideas, and just maybe can be reformed. Maybe.
The folks who raise fighting game cocks have selected for extreme interspecies aggression, and calm behavior with humans, showing that 'man fighting' is at least in part genetic.
Your rooster is not behaving well...
Mary

 

[Shadrach]

@BantyChooks and @Beekissed also have good articles about managing roosters, look them up also. Shad has a totally different flock management situation, not what you have with a small flock in confinement.
IMO this guy has already 'crossed the line' and needs to go! Rehoming him is a bad idea, unless it's to someone who will be making that soup stock.
Mary
And making him safe for you might be possible, but he'll attack any other humans he meets, making him dangerous.

A small correction if I may.
Shad did indeed have a different flock management situation. Now Shad is dealing with keeping arrangements much more like the American backyard keeping arrangement.
So far Shad has observed absolutley nothing that would indicate that his view of rooster behaviour in a free range setting bears no relevance to that of a primarily contained group.
The range of behaviours is different but the nature of a rooster seems much the same.
Meet Henry.

 

[Folly's place]

So, two more comments relating to chicken keeping in the USA, from a person who's father dealt with insurance issues his whole career.
Chickens are livestock, and I'd bet that many at least new flock owners aren't aware that their home owners liability insurance won't cover them. Also, many folks are lawsuit happy, and will go to court if anything untoward happens.
Mary

 

[Battlepants]

I never ever keep mean roosters no matter what. I would 100% cull he’s not worth getting injured over.

Gotta strongly agree with this. With the rooster going into a full on fight with the human and not backing down, I feel like this might be a lost cause.

You MIGHT be able to break him by constantly stepping into his space and swatting him down when he protests, but this puts you at risk for injury when the claws start flying. And there's no guarantee that he won't just flare up again later.

Then there is the subject of your kid. If your kid is in danger, the danger has to be removed. Full stop. Rooster and their jump-and-slash technique is bad against an adult, but this could be maiming for life to a child if the face becomes the target.