Shaming my rooster!

[jstlitlome]

I have a hot mess of a little Silkie Bantam Rooster. He has been quite the gentleman with the girls and takes his guarding responsibilities very seriously. (If I am late closing the coop door, he is always sitting in the doorway)

Recently, though, he has started attacking me every time I turn my back. He runs at my legs, claws and pecks. He's not terribly lethal, but its annoying. He is actually kind of funny, since he is so small. I find that he especially does it when all his girls follow me around the yard instead of him! LOL

I've tried kicking him, yelling and starting at him, and just picking him up and loving on him each time (which he hates the most I think! lol) I have read on here that you need to "shame him in front of his girls", so I have done all this in front of them. To no avail.

Yesterday, I picked him up and walked around with him for a bit, then had this idea to just lay him sideways on the ground and hold him there for a bit. His girls came over to investigate, and do you know what they did? All 8 of them started pecking on him!

I was amazed and thought, now if this isnt shame, what is? so I let them do it for a bit. (they were not hurting him, but he was upset) When he stopped struggling, I let him up.

He hasn't attacked me since. He isnt my best friend, but thats ok, as long as he keeps treating his girls like he does, I'm good with that!

Leslie

 

[TheReadyBoys]

Haha it's actually a good tip! I wonder if this works on most roosters?

 

[lcr123]

Sounds like what you did was "dominance gentling" a phrase I learned when we took one of our dogs to obedience class. If she growled at the other dogs or refused to listen to a command, we were told to have her sit, down, and then hold her down on her side until she quit struggling to get up, all the time speaking softly to her. It worked. I am wondering if this would work with my rooster, Harvey. He is 18 weeks, started crowing a couple weeks ago. He is protective of my one hen, Brownie, and gentle with her and she is very shy and submissive so that works for them! He does hog all the treats, and she defers to him. However, the day before yesterday the rooster ran after me and pecked me on the toe. Just reacting, I whirled around and said Ouch! No! and backhanded him. After that, he alternated between fluffing up at me and running away, so I gave him a few minutes and then picked him up and petted him. Harvey was fine in my arms and didn't try to peck or get away. I am wondering what is the best way to stop a rooster from being agressive toward people, dogs, hens? Was my reaction (soft backhand, No) followed in a few minutes by calm holding, right? If not, what should I do? If I can't train him to be nice to people then I will get rid of him, but I'm assuming he can be trained up to a point. Comments or suggestions?

 

[jstlitlome]

Sounds like we are in the same boat! I kicked him once enough to upset him, not enough to hurt him, but I think he just got madder at me! I really think his girls pecking at him did the trick. Went in this afternoon. He was obviously not happy that I was there, but kept his distance. I'm assuming at some point I'll have to repeat it.

 

[OlivesMama]

I had a very large, aggressive hen that began attacking me around the time she started laying. I actually thought she was a rooster, she was so much bigger than the others and her feathering was different, until she squatted for me! She was fluffing her feathers up and charging me. It then escalated into her biting me really hard 2 days in a row. I picker her up and pinned her to the ground until she stopped struggling. It worked perfectly! We haven't had a problem since. I also pick her up and tuck her under my arm periodically to reinforce that I'm the boss. She can only get down when she is still and quite. It has to be my idea.

I've had a similar experience to your rooster shaming incident. If one of the hens that's lower in the pecking order squats and I pet them, she'll get attacked by the higher ups. The head hen does this frequently, and some of the other higher ups join in. I'm guessing they are reinforcing their place in the pecking order?

 

[flockanuts]

All of my girls peck on each other. When I first let them out in the morning, you'd think it was World War III going on, all the squawking and pecking and fluffing up. Then it starts to calm down. But off and on all day long, they are going at each other, fronting and stretching their necks, and then pecking. I was told to get a roo and that he would help but now he breaks it up and just pecks everybody!!! WTH????

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

All of my girls peck on each other. When I first let them out in the morning, you'd think it was World War III going on, all the squawking and pecking and fluffing up. Then it starts to calm down. But off and on all day long, they are going at each other, fronting and stretching their necks, and then pecking. I was told to get a roo and that he would help but now he breaks it up and just pecks everybody!!! WTH????

How long have you had your rooster?

Sounds like he's disciplining the girls and reminding them who's boss. Roosters aren't gentle when they lay down the law.

Also, how much space do your birds have? When I hear about lots of pecking, I always wonder if they are overcrowded. Overcrowding is the number one cause of chicken behavior problems.

 

[Triple Willow]

I have an Australorp roo that is great. He breaks up all the fights real quick. He also finds the girls food to eat, always let's them eat first. I saw him one day pulling seeded tops off of tall plants and laying them on the ground for his girls to eat. He could reach them but they couldn't. But, if you pet a roo when he is a baby or handle him much at all he will not have any fear of you. If he has no fear of you he will usually end up attacking you. Mine will walk all over my feet and get close enough to touch me but at the same time, if I reach down to him he will move away so I can't touch him. That's how it needs to stay. I had rather raise one with the "hands off" approach than to try to fix them later because they are attacking me.

If mine did show any agression whatsoever toward me (and I didn't make soup out of him) I would do something to scare the crap out of him. For example, get him in close quarters (preferably just me and him) and I'd take a broom and chase him like I was totally crazy smacking him around with the broom pretty hard. Of course you don't want to hurt him too bad, but don't let him know that! lol Make him think you are going to kill him. You do that a couple times he should he glad to keep his distance from you. If not, soup!

 

[jstlitlome]

I have an Australorp roo that is great. He breaks up all the fights real quick. He also finds the girls food to eat, always let's them eat first. I saw him one day pulling seeded tops off of tall plants and laying them on the ground for his girls to eat. He could reach them but they couldn't. But, if you pet a roo when he is a baby or handle him much at all he will not have any fear of you. If he has no fear of you he will usually end up attacking you. Mine will walk all over my feet and get close enough to touch me but at the same time, if I reach down to him he will move away so I can't touch him. That's how it needs to stay. I had rather raise one with the "hands off" approach than to try to fix them later because they are attacking me.

If mine did show any agression whatsoever toward me (and I didn't make soup out of him) I would do something to scare the crap out of him. For example, get him in close quarters (preferably just me and him) and I'd take a broom and chase him like I was totally crazy smacking him around with the broom pretty hard. Of course you don't want to hurt him too bad, but don't let him know that! lol Make him think you are going to kill him. You do that a couple times he should he glad to keep his distance from you. If not, soup!I

I'm picturing me chasing David around the room with a broom screaming. My husband would probably have me committed!

(he may have already considered that! LOL)

 

[Triple Willow]

I'm picturing me chasing David around the room with a broom screaming. My husband would probably have me committed!    (he may have already considered that! LOL)

Just give your husband an evil gaze and say, "Careful or your next!" LOL