Stupid Roosters!!!!!

[hillbilly123]

You do not mention the size of your run/coop set up. At 20 weeks all are getting close to full size, and are taking up more room.

MrsK

We don't have a run, ours are free ranged around the farm from morning to night, they only go into the henhouse at night to sleep. We converted an old summer kitchen into the henhouse, so they have I dunno maybe a 15 x 15 space to sleep in at night. We have sheep and horses as well so our entire property is fenced with woven wire which keeps out most predators.

 

[Summer98]

1. Physically harming the rooster is not a solution. You may win the battle but you've then started a war that will have no end, or rather, ends unhappily with a dead rooster. There are hundreds of posts from people who crow about their creative methods for beating up, humiliating, intimidating, their rooster and every one of them says that they then have to watch their backs and repeat their methods regularly.

2. You said your flock is about 20 weeks--just exactly at the point where the roosters are feeling their hormones and figuring out their roles in the flock. With 4 of them there is going to be the added stress of jockying for position. So, yes, this is a phase.

If you search carefully through threads about roosters you will find posts from people who have great roosters. They say that the successful, long-term strategy is understanding the rooster's instincts. Here's a little summary of what I've gleaned from them and what I've experienced first-hand with my roosters.
1. You are not a rooster so don't try to be one--don't try to be at the "top of the pecking order". That's nonsense. You don't need to fight with him to establish dominance--people are mixing up how mammals such as dogs in packs relate to each other with the instincts of poultry. Totally different animals needing totally different methods.

2. The rooster's job is to look for danger. If you move or sound like something dangerous he'll react to you that way. So, move calmly and predictably. Don't accidentally corner him. Don't make loud sounds. Don't bend over or reach over top of him. Be considerate of how you might appear to something much smaller than you.

3. Think of your rooster's stage right now as that of the Terrible Twos for a toddler. They must test everything. The more the parent freaks out the more the kid is excited; conversely, if the parent nonchalantly ignores something then the kid moves on to something else. So, when my rooster did his first testing pecks I completely ignored them. Luckily it was winter so it didn't hurt when he pecked my boots or gloves. I never reacted at all. He pecked a few times...walked away...came back and pecked a few more times. That was it. This happened over a 5 minute time span every day for about a week and then never happened again. He learned pecking a human was as uninteresting as pecking the wall of his coop. I neither retaliated nor did I retreat. I was dead boring.

Once, months later the rooster met my 5-yr-old son as he got off the school bus. I was watching out the window. The rooster began walking around my son in a suspicious manner. I yelled to my son to hold perfectly still. He did, the rooster finished his inspection, and then moved on. The culprit--my son was wearing new shoes. Roosters must inspect anything new in their territory to determine if it is a threat. So long as we don't act as if we're a threat (being aggressive) the rooster will learn to ignore that new thing.

I hope this helps you. I suggest you do lots more reading from people with well-mannered roosters. There is a science to it that is rewarding when you understand it. Best wishes.

I'm going to take your advice with my roosters. This makes sense to me, so I will try it. "Blue" freaks out on me when I make sudden movements. If I stand still, he doesn't attack me. He pecks at my shoes, but I don't do anything. The one time he flogged me was when I was hand feeding him some scratch grains and all of the hens were in the roost for the night. I don't understand what happened there.