Roosters behaviour.

[WhatsUpDuck]

Hmm I guess it is kind of like pitbulls. Some people have very sweet loving pitbulls until they aren't..some NEVER do anything wrong their whole life, while quite a few do things we'd never think ever would!..so I think it is good to remember these are feral animals we are taming for our use, but in the end they are still feral and can behave as such.

 

[Perris]

I agree with Perris, it's the owners fault when the dog misbehave. Not sure if we can transfer the same ideology towards roosters as mine are meant to be livestock not pets and I haven't yet taught them basic commands like heel and sit.

I was just responding to your analogy

The thing with roosters is like getting a surprise puppy and you have no idea if it's a Labrador or a Pitbull until suddenly it shows it's true nature.

Problematic roos posts, like this one, usually open with words to the effect that the roo was acquired as a chick, and was neither intended nor is particularly wanted. It's quick and easy from there to blame the roo's nature for any behavioural issues that might have arisen now it's grown/ growing up, rather than to wonder what else might be going on here that could account for its behaviour.

Since these problematic roos often behave differently towards different people, again as in this case, it is at least illogical to call them human aggressive: They have been reported as aggressive to only some people. The sensible thing to do is to examine the behaviour of the people targeted when in the presence of the roo doing the targeting, and try to work out why it is creating the stress and tension that leads to an attack.

 

[FrostRanger]

Best way to have nice livestock is to treat them with care and respect and don't put up with mean individuals. Mean animals produce more mean animals. Aside from that there are too many nice roosters who need homes to put up with ill tempered ones. Yes, nurture does play a part in behavior but when it comes to how aggressive a roo is it comes down to nature most of the time

 

[NatJ]

Regarding the nature vs. nurture debate:
I've had several times when I raised a group with multiple cockerels. Sometimes one or two of them were aggressive toward me or other people when they grew up, other times none of them were. I would say the aggressive ones are less than 1 in 10 of cockerels I have raised. I would say that's a problem with them, not with how I raised them.

I like to eat chicken, so I eat most of the cockerels I raise, including all the ones with behavior I dislike. I see no reason to change my behavior or spend time working with problem cockerels, when I have plenty of others that do just fine with the way things currently are.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Regarding the nature vs. nurture debate:
I've had several times when I raised a group with multiple cockerels. Sometimes one or two of them were aggressive toward me or other people when they grew up, other times none of them were. I would say the aggressive ones are less than 1 in 10 of cockerels I have raised. I would say that's a problem with them, not with how I raised them.

I like to eat chicken, so I eat most of the cockerels I raise, including all the ones with behavior I dislike. I see no reason to change my behavior or spend time working with problem cockerels, when I have plenty of others that do just fine with the way things currently are.

I believe both nature and nurture have an effect. Like NatJ, most of the ones I raise are fine. But occasionally I can get one that is human aggressive. Those were hatched from eggs from the same flock and raised with the others. Each one has its own personality.

I remember a story on here where a rooster was great until one day he started attacking a 5-year-old boy. Anytime that boy was outside he'd run to him to attack him. It turned out the boy's parents though it was cute how the boy chased after the rooster's hens. The rooster saw that as a threat to his hens and protected them. I believe that rooster was taught to be aggressive against one specific person.

I think it is a combination of nature and nurture. Different ones are put together differently so you get different results.

 

[Perris]

I would say the aggressive ones are less than 1 in 10 of cockerels I have raised. I would say that's a problem with them, not with how I raised them.

I believe both nature and nurture have an effect. Like NatJ, most of the ones I raise are fine. But occasionally I can get one that is human aggressive. Those were hatched from eggs from the same flock and raised with the others. Each one has its own personality.

This is my experience too. Of course both nature and nurture play roles in how chickens develop and change, and the combination in any particular case can have different outcomes, as twin studies show for people, and more weakly with siblings rather than twins.

I also get it that people have better things to do than work with difficult cockerels, or lack the inclination, money, time or space to explore alternative keeping arrangements that might suit the bird better. My aim is just to stop people making snap judgements about a cockerel or roo being aggressive by nature. I don't doubt that some are aggressive. But I suspect that there are a lot fewer of them than are so labelled. A lot of animals turn nasty if they feel threatened and cornered.