Roosters and woman not getting along

[Rick589]

They have all been together since day one. I hand feed treats to them the same as Beverly yet have very little problem with them. What is a bit perplexing is that they are generally pretty docile it’s just the occasional episode that surfaces. New to chickens so we’re flying by the seat of the old pants in many respects.

 

[Folly's place]

Our first rooster, a tiny bantam, really wanted to kill all of us. He'd fly up to eye level to attack, had to carry a weapon out there every day for protection. Ridiculous! We learned, never again! Your cockerel is very very likely to improve his technique, and get worse, not better.
Any one else out there, ever? really good liability insurance, including for your poultry? Thirty plus years of chicken keeping here, and lots of cockerel and rooster experience. Nice birds are wonderful, jerks, not so much.
Mary

 

[FrostRanger]

They have all been together since day one. I hand feed treats to them the same as Beverly yet have very little problem with them. What is a bit perplexing is that they are generally pretty docile it’s just the occasional episode that surfaces. New to chickens so we’re flying by the seat of the old pants in many respects.

You haven't had problems with him  yet. As others have said, they start with children, then move on to women and eventually men. In all likelihood he'll start attacking you eventually. Behaviour modification rarely works with roosters and human aggression is genetic so if he fathers chicks you're more likely to have issues out of them too. I would cull him now before this gets any worse

 

[Ridgerunner]

What is a bit perplexing is that they are generally pretty docile it’s just the occasional episode that surfaces. New to chickens so we’re flying by the seat of the old pants in many respects.

Could you please give some details of what an attack looks like and when and where they occur. Most of the time I see ambushes, hitting you from behind.

As you can see from the other posts different people have different experiences. I remember a story on here where if someone wore a certain pair of boots they were attacked, different footwear no problem. I remember another story where a woman was attacked the first time she wore a skirt out there. If I carry a water bucket none notice, they are used to that, but if I carry something strange, like a small camera, the rooster puts himself between me and the flock and tells them to be careful. Can you see a pattern with clothing or such? It may have nothing to do with the person but something else.

I think they can sense when someone is afraid of them. That does not mean that every rooster in the world will immediately attack if someone is afraid of them, but some could. Opposite to that one might see a strong person as a rival and attack, often from ambush.

I do not find a common thread where every rooster in the world reacts exactly the same to the same stimulus. Yours are not even roosters, they are still adolescent cockerels. Like many adolescents they may not always behave as rationally as many adults would and may be a bit erratic.

You do not need to answer my questions, they are there for you to answer to yourself. Why do you even want a rooster? There are plenty of successful flocks out there with no roosters. The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. Everything else is a personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preferences, I have a few of my own. But those are a want, not a need. Why do you want that specific boy? Would another one do as well? This might help you establish your priorities.

I've had a few immature cockerels like that try to attack me. I've been able to train a several to not attack me. Some catch on pretty quickly, some not so much. I do not give them unlimited tries. I'd chase them down (none of this taking them off of the roost at night, give them immediate reinforcement), carry them around for a while, and hold them to the ground, rubbing their heads into the ground. No mercy. When walking in the coop or run, if he is in the way, walk through him. Give him no reason to think I am deferring to him.

A very few of these were OK after that, they never bothered anybody else. Just an adolescent that got over it. But a majority would be a danger to my wife, a chicken sitter, or the grandkids at a later time. Over time I went from an attitude of "well let me try" to a zero tolerance. There is not a rooster in this world that is more valuable to me than my grandkids.

You may be able to salvage him, I don't know. But I don't take that chance.

Good luck!

 

[Altairsky]

Hand feeding a cockerel is a big mistake. Size of the human doesn't matter. My husband ruined my good rooster by hand feeding him. I always told him to leave the rooster alone and he didn't listen. Then I told him "I ain't gonna cull the rooster because you act stupid".
Now the rooster attacks him. My husband is much bigger than me but the roo attacks just him. This happened because he wouldn't leave the chickens alone and always treated them like puppies, while I always treated the chickens like livestock. Treat chickens like livestock and you'll never have issues with aggressive roos.

 

[Folly's place]

Some cockerels/ roosters will be jerks no matter how they are handled, and some will be fine, ditto. Genetics are a big factor in this, it's not 'either/ or'.
And breeding from nice birds, which includes the hens, really matters, over generations definitely.
Mary

 

[Debbie292d]

Well, at about 6 months old our BO roosters and my woman are at odds with one another. I don’t have any issues with them, we’ve come to terms early on, however she is still being squared off with from time to time by both of our roosters. This has led to multiple conversations about the proper approach, and in short my advice is to make sure they understand who is the alpha, by whatever reasonable means. We are looking for any advice from others on an approach she can employ to gain the upper hand.

6 months old is a bad age for some of our silkie cockerels. Most are fine, but one like Piper comes along, and it took him until he was well over a year old to stop attacking us. He even took off after our border collie who never touches them.

When I'd go in the breeding pen where he was, I took a stainless still pitcher with me and held it in front of me in one hand while I tended to what I was doing. He'd fly up to hit that, and after one time, he'd stop and stand there. This went on for weeks. Hubby could go in there no problem. Then it switched. I was left alone, but hubby was attacked. Hubby thought it was funny until one day, we let him out of the pen to the yard, and he got blind-sided. He got mad at Piper and stood off with him, yelling at him. Birds don't understand what we're saying for the most part, but the actions of hubby did it. Piper walked away.

If he hadn't been so beautiful, or if I had kids living here still, I'd have not put up with this. Now, he's about 2 years old and has been a great rooster.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Treat chickens like livestock and you'll never have issues with aggressive roos.

I don't hand-feed and I leave my roosters alone. Regardless, every sumatra rooster I've had has went full psycho under identical conditions to other perfectly behaved roosters

Handfeeding may quickly expose human aggression but the root is genetic

 

[cj2024]

My rooster is afraid of my water hose, sometimes I have to straighten him out when he starts acting up in front of his hens. I crossed a good-natured Breese rooster with a Cornish cross hen, and the babies came out with different color legs, white, blue and yellow. I kept a big white legged rooster as my main breeder for meat and culled his good natured blue legged brother. I will keep the blue legged ones on the next round, since I am more into eggs this time around. Processing them at 3 months old is kind of heart breaking.

 

[chooki]

I have bought a few of these at an auction:

Any unruly cockerel/rooster that challenges my authority goes into one of these for solitary confinement until he reforms, he is allowed to watch other roosters free ranging while reflecting on his own mistakes.

It works so far, but it's an ongoing experiment.