Rooster

[gritsar]

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I agree. Something I learned with my brahmas. My light and buff girls are what you'd expect from hatchery birds, not up to the SOP, but with the sweet nature of the brahma and oh my gosh these girls are good egg layers. My darks are very good looking birds, but more standoffish and not as good at egg production as my lights and buffs. I can only assume that whoever is supplying the hatchery with the dark brahma eggs is concentrating more on looks and less on temperment; with the lights and buffs it's vice versa.

 

[hudsonhousechicks]

I have a hatchery Wyandotte. He's about a year old now. He has recently become aggressive towards my husband and strangers. I am the only one that he will let pick up and I make a point of doing this every day. It may be why he tolerates it, I don't know for sure. I love him but I wouldn't have small children in the yard with him. He hasn't raked my husband with his feet, but he body slams him then runs away. I've heard of all sorts of "remedies" but haven't tried any of them. It's hard to say if he'll change his ways or not. Hopefully someone here has experience and can help you. Good luck to you.

 

[gryeyes]

My "base" flock is all feed store (and therefore, hatchery) stock and while I've seen the difference in size and feathering once I started hatching eggs from breeders, I've been very very pleased with my just plain ol' PQ hatchery birds. My dominant rooster, Carl - an EE - is a GREAT rooster. He's tried to seduce me with pretty leaves or odd pebbles every now and then, but I won't become one of his hens. (Although he is a gentleman with them.)

I think I've been VERY lucky with all the roosters in my flock (and there are a lot of 'em) Some I got as straight run chicks and many others I've managed to hatch. The only obnoxious ones are the Silver Sebright roos, Alex and George. Actually, George, because Alex will kick George's butt if he runs at me or visitors.... But 8 inches of fluffed up feathers attacking my calves every once in a while is no biggie to me.

Every couple of weeks I have to walk George backwards until he gives up.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Whoa, calm down there, I'm just making a point - That YES indeed they are unpredictable. Take a look at Rhode Island Reds for example and the difference in behavior with production vs heritage. It's called production breeding, nothing more, thus behavior is ignored.

I didn't say ALL are bad, and neither would I think 4 roosters total to be a solid argument to prove me wrong in saying some can be bad.

You assumed that the OPs bird was HQ, though the OP didn't mention that. You make alot of assumptions about peoples birds, being as how you are a breeder and everyone knowsssssss your birds are so superior in quality. There are BREEDER quality roos that turn out to be nasty little boogers too, but you don't want to talk about that, right?

Also, I have 5 roosters total, counting the cockerels, not 4. I also had a commercial quality cornish X that was a sweetheart. My roosters aren't the only roos I've ever dealt with either.

I just think you need to give your breeder snobbery a rest Illia and I know from reading replies that I am not the only one that feels that way. You only like BQ birds? That's fine, that's great. Lots of folks just want a nice, productive backyard flock though and don't deserve you running down their birds.

Wheres the "like" button on BYC....

 

[Gypsy07]

Heheh. Most of the time, it's not exactly what's said, it's the tone that it's said (typed?) in that can upset people. A few people on here could do with trying to be a bit more tactful in their responses and assessments of other peoples' birds. This isn't aimed specifically at any responder on this thread, it's just a general observation. I remember a while ago posting pics of my birds for people to help me pick out pullets and roos. And someone jumped in and told me that they were of very poor quality and totally not to breed standard. Which was completely correct, but also completely unnecessary, as I wasn't asking about their quality. And even if I had been, there would have been nicer ways to tell me that my birds were total crap without actually fibbing and saying they were okay when they weren't. Anyhoo...

loran 507: There are loads of methods for rehabilitating naughty roos. Some of them are harsher than others. Some of them work, some of them don't. Usually whether they work or not is (in my opinion) more down to the individual bird than the actual method. If you try to nip bad behaviour in the bud early, it's more likely to work than if your bird has already established a strong pattern of aggressiveness. Personally I favour the picking-up-and-carrying-around method over the chasing-away-with-a-long-stick method, but that's just cause it's worked for me with a couple of birds and the more aggressive approach has failed miserably for me with a couple of birds...

 

[curliet]

my sentiments too, redhen.

Wheres the "like" button on BYC....​

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

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I have both BQ/SQ and hatchery birds. My original birds all came from MyPetChicken and have been great. I did have trouble with both roosters from that lot, but I am pretty sure it was because I didn't know what I was doing and I ruined them by loving on them. I ended up rehoming them both (with huge warnings about their aggressiveness). Both ended up being great, docile roos with new owners. They just had no respect for me.

The hens though are all great. They lay great and all have HUGE personalities.

Gryeyes- my worst rooster EVER was a little tiny mille fleur d'uccle. He stood maybe 8 inches tall as well and yet thought he was a velociraptor. Brat! It got to where he would attack me every time I went in his pen. I have scars on both shins from the little snot. I kept him longer than I should have because he was cute as a button and really funny. He was just aggressive to me. Sigh. I hated giving him away, but I was tired of my shins bleeding. I now have a silkie roo in that pen who is a sweetie pie to me. He does hate this one farmer man who likes to visit me, but in his defense, the farmer man does sort of egg him on. (My farmer neighbor thinks the ball of fluff attacking his feet is funny.

)

OP- There are so many nice roosters in the world that there is no reason to keep a hateful one. Poll the crowd around here and talk about breeds with less assertive roosters. I know some breeds tend to be more aggressive than others. My ameraucana boys are consistently good roosters to their girls, but are quick to move out of my way. Every AM boy I have ever hatched has had a great personality. Good luck with your boy. It may just be time to move him on.

 

[BooBear]

To the OP:
Watch him around your hubby to see how the rooster acts.
He maybe nice to you cus you mess with him more and he thinks you are the dominate one. He probably sees your hubby as a subordinate that he wants to pass up in the pecking order.

I had 5 blue wyandotte boys from a hatchery. Long Tail first started showing people agression to my dad and was very mean to otjer flock members. We had him for dinner last night and he was so yummy.
Rubert was adopted by my friend's son. Big Boy was adopted by a friend of dad's. Jester is soon to be invited to dinner.
Lester got the best as he was picked to be the rooster for all the girls and he has turned out to be awesome choice.

Breed (genetics) along with how they are bred (purpose) can play key roles in their temperment, but individuality plays a big role too.

If you do find him to be aggressive you can try to work with him or you can either rehome him or dress him out for dinner.
You need to teach your daughter to not be afraid of him. Like dogs they pick up on this which can trigger the rooster to pick her out for a bit of bullying like chickens do to the lowest member of the flock. If she is too svared though to try to dominate over the rooster then you may want to just go ahead and cull him.

 

[ldemmert]

I have an aggressive roo: when he comes at me I catch him by his legs and let him hang for 30 seconds then lay him down gently. That treatment is lasting longer and longer. Hopefully, one day, I'll just have to go into my "make my day" stance and he'll figure it out. But if not, he does a good job of keeping all the girls rounded up so I think we'll keep him.

 

[jaimslee4u]

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Totally need a pic of the upside down roo!!!!