Sorry..another rooster question :(

[Folly's place]

I also don't think that rooster management is really about 'dominance', rather it's about not being a flock member at all. I'm the giant who brings food, not another bird, or a predator to be defended against. I'm outside the pecking order entirely.
Mary

 

[Shadrach]

I want to add complicate this discussion a bit more. Over generations, and especially (IMO) with so many of our birds grown in hatcheries, where production is most important, and natural behaviors aren't considered, but also when breeder birds anywhere are selected for qualities totally unrelated to what's 'normal' for chickens, aberrations occur.
Sorry, too long a sentence!
Shadrach is raising generations of birds in a more normal flock environment, so extremes in behavior tend to even out or become more manageable. Normal is good!
Newer chicken keepers aren't going to recognize early signs of human aggression, and if birds aren't selected to eliminate that trait at the breeder's, it will crop up. Many of us had a 'first rooster' who was a horrible beast, and we put up with it way too long!
In a 'normal' flock, with several generations of birds, there's experience, chicks are raised by broody hens, roosters manage cockerels as they grow, and predators take the young and unwary (natural, right?) so the group develops towards healthy social behaviors.
Enough for now!
Mary

Do go on.

 

[Folly's place]

Okay, onward a bit.
Game (fighting) breeds, where for at least two thousand years birds have been bred for extreme interspecies aggression. This isn't 'normal', but has been managed by fighting bird breeders, who also select away from human aggression in their birds. So, sweet with people, terrible with other roosters.
Birds (most now!) raised in brooders, in same age flocks, with extreme crowding and very short lives. Commercial egg layers, where virtually all males are killed at hatching, hens are debeaked to prevent cannibalism, and no bird lives to two years of age anyway.
That's a big reason why many of us grow our own!
It's hard to expect that any selection for normal social behaviors comes out of that!
Many pet birds, raised, again, in brooders, with no history of parental behaviors, and then no adult flockmates, only other idiot agemates. Often it's fine, and often not.
Mary

 

[Chickassan]

Op, he sounds like a normal cockrel.
As long as he isn't attacking you then you are doing just fine.
Carry on your daily activities and don't worry about the stuff he's doing because none of it has a thing to do with you.
If it ever by chance does, you'll know.
You don't need a ton of experience, they're roosters they are self driving lol.
Don't make problems to solve and you'll do great.

 

[Shadrach]

I also don't think that rooster management is really about 'dominance', rather it's about not being a flock member at all. I'm the giant who brings food, not another bird, or a predator to be defended against. I'm outside the pecking order entirely.
Mary

Lots of chicken keepers where I live have this approach. It does take a certain amount of knowledge and experience to make work.
Unfortunately here on BYC the rooster problems are often new keepers who have inadvertently place themselves in the hierarchy while the chickens were chicks and pullets/cockerels and when these chickens mature it all starts to go wrong.
Ask a chicken keeper here on these mountains and rule one for many is never handle the chicks. Mostly these chicks are hatched and reared by hens. Thankfully the incubation addicts haven't taken over here.
Reading between the lines in many of the posts that state they have wonderful friendly cuddly hens and roosters it becomes apparent that in fact they are talking about pullets and cockerels.
The don't handle the chicks rule is never going to be the advice on a site that tells you chickens make wonderful pets and many of the notable members are hatchoholics with no experience it seems of natural flock keeping. Understandably for many backyard keepers with contained flocks, broody hens, roosters and normal chicken behavior just doesn't feature and consequently the true nature and social arrangements of the chicken doesn't get observed.
Despite all the noise regarding particular behaviors being bred out of chickens over the centuries it seems as if the reality is is much of their ancestral behavior will be exhibited as soon as their keeping conditions are conducive to it.

 

[Folly's place]

True, over time, eliminating 'outliers' and the years it takes both the flock and the flock owners.
Mary

 

[Futuregreenefarm]

In keeping with this conversation, (and for those who may be in the same boat I am) I never handled mine nor do I now. They where raised by a broody, taught to fear me and I only took them over once she weaned them and left. They was, are, and will continue to be I'm sure, always cautious with me. They abide me only because of food I give I think. I wouldn't consider them pets at all. Also, I have never tried to be part of them and if they think I am, then my actions where inadvertent. I just approached then the way I have always approached any animal I've owned, with compassion and willingness to learn to try to be the best keeper I can.
I greatly appreciate everyone's advice but what @Mrs. K said has struck a cord with me personally. I want to enjoy them and I think I need to learn general hen behavior and leave the rooster learning curve to others with more knowledge than me. I've been trying to re-home them and I think I will do this more diligently now. I'm not willing to find out if he is or isn't turning aggressive. I chose to go the safe route and I'm not ashamed or embarrassed to state it. Also, I want calmer pullets. Calmer pullets would be so nice.

 

[Henry&Friends]

My rooster, Henry VIII II was super aggressive. For three years my family complained of his crows and his attacking. He attacked everybody but me, because when he started acting aggressive towards me I used a stick until he laid off. Then, I bought pullets from rural king- where I met Henry VIII III. Henry VIII II decided to drop dead one night, so I no longer had to decide which rooster to keep and which to cull. Henry VIII III has not showed any aggressive behavior, and is nice to the girls as well. I interacted with all of them as chicks, my last brooder setup was in my bedroom closet. Really, some roosters are just jerks and you can’t do much about it, you can put up with them or you can not put up with them.

 

[cluckcluckhens]

I don't think it does depend on breed. He will change as all creatures do at maturity.
This doesn't mean the change will necessarily be for the worse.
Do you still have the rooster you got in 2012?
If not, do you have a senior rooster?

Teenage Cockerel is the only one I have.

The Rooster we had we don't have him anymore.

 

[cluckcluckhens]

[QUOTE=" I want calmer pullets. Calmer pullets would be so nice.[/QUOTE]

We handle and hold the chicks when they are little until we move them into the run so the Hens can see and be around them. Chicks go into their own little run within the run. The girls will make you laugh and it is good entertainment for us to watch. Some of the things the pullets and hens do you just can't help but laugh. When the pullets and cockerel start to get older you laugh or smile because they are learning to balk or crow. This is entertainment for us. When I go into the run all of them are at my feet waiting for treats. They know I feed them most of the time. The more you interact with them like feeding them the more you can bend downward toward them and touch them, then after doing this a while you'll be able to reach down and pick them up. I do not pet cockerel but he is around my feet when I give them treats and he wants some too.