Sudden rooster aggression

[Jojo1979]

6 months is typical age for some roosters to start testing and asserting their dominance.
After years and years of chicken keeping, I have some rules of rooster keeping.
1. I never befriend my rooster. It's best if he always is leary of me. THe hens I will hand feed and pick up but the rooster only gets handled after dark with a flashlight for spur trimming and health check. And I'm not too gentle about it either..this is to firmly let him know who is boss.
2. No human aggressive rooster remains on my farm. I have people (including children) who visit. I also don't pass a dangerous rooster on to others to be a danger to them.
3. Stride around your chicken area like you owned the place. roosters can sence when you are hesitant or fearful of them. Walk unhesitantatly through him and make him move out of YOUR way.

Don't be his friend, be dominate, be top dog.
There is plenty of advice coming your way from others who will give you things to try to stop your rooster from attacking. My advice is that when those things don't work. Cull him and look for a replacement. Plenty of good roosters are culled for lack of a good home.

I have 2 extra nice roosters right now I was hoping to find homes for. They are probably going to be Sunday dinner as no one in my area needs one.
I have been spured in my youth, I have seen some nasty wounds (not mine) inflicted by roosters (not mine ) which ended with infection stiches and antibiotic treatment.

Do you need a rooster?
Do you have small children?

I am confident whilst around them and whilst in their run and I do not handle him at all as I haven’t needed too. The girls I have occasionally handle as one had a cut and one needed some medicine and I do not hand feed them.

My roo was accidental as the breed can be hard to sex at the age I got him so no he is not necessary at all. I have 2 children but in their teens but we have horses so need to be able to move around the yard freely.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Honestly, there are too many nice roosters out there for me to waste my time trying to rehabilitate a jackass with all the ridiculous and debatably effective advice you'll find online... particularly since you don't need a rooster, and didn't plan to have a rooster, I would not hesitate at all to move him along whether that is to another flock or the stew pot

 

[Anon112]

I did flap at him but he just got meaner! I also agree that a lot of methods for ‘taming’ are cruel and other seem like putting myself in harms way. He did semi attack my son (aged 14 and 6ft) but it went a full blown attack, more of a head but and then a chase and I thought it was because my son had startled him as I didn’t think it would be something he would do as he is usually a good boy! I’m gutted!

If you have a way to keep him safely, you can pursue that. It would mean he would need to be kept in a run and actively supervised when outside to free range.

I was able to do this with my set-up, but if I had little kids, or couldn't keep him ethically contained, I wouldn't have.

I was going to say that sometimes I've noticed that one of my roosters will be a bit aggressive after a scare---a hawk attack, for examples. But because you're saying he's also gone after your son, it's sounding more like emerging human aggression.

I've navigated two aggressive roosters because I cannot bear to give away or cull animals (except in the case of putting down a very sick one). But it took a lot of work, it was somewhat risky, and I can't say I'd recommend it to everyone.

 

[Jojo1979]

Honestly, there are too many nice roosters out there for me to waste my time trying to rehabilitate a jackass... particularly since you don't need a rooster, and didn't plan to have a rooster, I would not hesitate at all to move him along whether that is to another flock or the stew pot

The breeder will take him back as they can use him in their breeding programme…..I just hate making that decision!

 

[FrostRanger]

The breeder will take him back as they can use him in their breeding programme…..I just hate making that decision!

That's..... concerning. Human aggressive animals should never be used in a breeding program, ever. I would not get more birds from them as if birds with blatantly bad attitudes are allowed to breed then you are likely to get more ill-tempered birds

 

[Jojo1979]

That's..... concerning. Human aggressive animals should never be used in a breeding program, ever. I would not get more birds from them as if birds with blatantly bad attitudes are allowed to breed then you are likely to get more ill-tempered birds

I hadn’t thought of that!

 

[SkyAJK]

My personal experience is that when my roosters come of age...things change, some more than other...they are more protective of their flock and here come attack...

My current tiny rooster only attack at night or when for some reason a hen screams while I try to pick her up, he will go for the full attack.