Prepare yourself for a long one, folks.
I agree with everyone in this discussion.
I agree that perhaps soup is a good option, and I agree that giving him a chance and training him is a good option. The reality is that chickens are a food source. If we consume chicken, we probably eat roosters.
But to know the face of our food, that's a tough for me I'll someday have to address. Meanwhile, I do know from experience that roosters can be managed and trained.
Some folks will disagree with holding a rooster. For me I discovered two things about this:
1) They don't like it; it increases their anxiety. But whenever I would set Henry down after holding him, he would Spanish dance around me, and because I always held my ground and took steps toward him, he would quickly back off and walk away. A pattern emerged that he began to recognize.
And let me tell you: Roosters can indeed recognize patterns. I have stories to share about that, saved for another time.
2) After a week or so of holding Henry, with the intention of squelching undesired behaviors and showing my dominance over him, I came to realize I could accomplish the same thing by simply stepping into his personal space and taking objects from him he identified as his: the water bowl, the food station, a perch, a dog carrier, and even a rock!
He would scream at me and then do a rapid dance and sometimes try to bite. But same thing: I held my ground, stepped toward him with my own version of a Spanish dance, and that was that. Dual over, bird lives, chicken rancher happy.
I will say, though, that it's important to know how to pick up and hold your rooster. Practice this to overcome your fear.
The wonderful thing about working with roosters is the abundance of examples that speak to the effectiveness of different approaches. There isn't ONE golden way to do this. And if you're unopposed to culling as a food source to feed your family, there's sweetness in that.
Unless you have an abundance of roosters or children and no time to deal with the nuances of rooster management, the stew pot may be your best option, and I totally respect you for that.
Also, I don't have kids. Don't like them too much. Hahaha, just kidding.
And I only have one rooster and an abundance of land and time. So my circumstances work to my favor, and Henry's too. The boy attacks my dogs. He's obsessed with one in particular, and in the low lighting of his room, when I reached out and quickly took his water bowl, he bit me. It still happens, but not often — and always for a very specific reason.
For the most part, though, no more launching himself at me and biting my ankles. Boy did that hurt. He has come to tolerate the cats and doesn't mind if he finds one sleeping in the chicken run. And the one time a cat emerged from a deep slumber from inside the chicken coop, it scared the both of us and we ran around the yard squawking and mad clucking.
But the relationship I now have with my boy is copacetic. Here, they even wrote a song about it!
They modified the lyrics. Here's the full version:
Born to be (a rooster mama)
(I'm learning all my chicken lessons) now
Born to be (a rooster mama)
I (know) you'll get used to (him)
(Trust me, yeah. Oh, just trust me, yo!)
And you (really can) get (him)
You keep it copacetic
And you learn to accept (him)
You know it's so (magnetic)
Born to be (a rooster mama)
I think that I've said this before now
Born to be (a rooster mama)
(There's) good (in) confidence(!)
And you (really can) get (him)
You keep it copacetic
And you learn to accept (him)
You know it's so (magnetic)
(Trust me, yeah. Oh, just trust me, yo!)
