Suddenly aggressive rooster

[amykbennett]

Hi! First time poster here and I need help. We have a flock of 12 chickens, with 2 roosters in the flock that have been raised since birth together and it has worked fine because rooster #2 (a Rhode Island Red) lets #1 (Easter Egger) rule the flock. No fighting or anything. Rooster #1 is a fantastic protector of our hens, takes his job very seriously and is a huge dude (prob twice the size of the RIR) and very cool looking guy. He's very dominant and not friendly to us (we haven't been able to pick him up in probably 6 months or so - he's 18 months now). He stalks us when we walk into the coop, but generally shies away from any direct contact. So not nice, but not aggressive toward us or the other chickens.

But last week, he spurred both my husband (twice) and me (once) (first time ever and he's about 18 months). Neither of us provoked him - we were just in the coop. One of our broody hens just hatched eggs last week so the kids and I were in the coop constantly checking on progress and meeting the new chickies - I assume he was responding to the constant commotion, but who knows?

So we put him on isolation temporarily (he can still see the flock and they can see him, but no one can get to each other). While he was on iso, rooster #2 took over as head dude, along with standing outside the fence of roo #1 and taunting him. We let #1 out of iso today and the cock fighting started almost immediately. So what do we do? Hate to put him down because he actually is a great protector. But don't want to get rid of #2 because he's a super friendly guy. Pic of the offending roo here, with #2-recently-self-promoted-to-#1 in the background.

 

[sourland]

Sorry for the problems. I have little patience with human aggressive roosters, but there are several threads on behavior modification here at BYC. You might want to try to adjust his attitude. Younger cockerels/roosters sometimes grow out of this behavior, but it seems as if he is growing into aggression.

 

[DobieLover]

Hi! First time poster here and I need help. We have a flock of 12 chickens, with 2 roosters in the flock that have been raised since birth together and it has worked fine because rooster #2 (a Rhode Island Red) lets #1 (Easter Egger) rule the flock. No fighting or anything. Rooster #1 is a fantastic protector of our hens, takes his job very seriously and is a huge dude (prob twice the size of the RIR) and very cool looking guy. He's very dominant and not friendly to us (we haven't been able to pick him up in probably 6 months or so - he's 18 months now). He stalks us when we walk into the coop, but generally shies away from any direct contact. So not nice, but not aggressive toward us or the other chickens.

But last week, he spurred both my husband (twice) and me (once) (first time ever and he's about 18 months). Neither of us provoked him - we were just in the coop. One of our broody hens just hatched eggs last week so the kids and I were in the coop constantly checking on progress and meeting the new chickies - I assume he was responding to the constant commotion, but who knows?

So we put him on isolation temporarily (he can still see the flock and they can see him, but no one can get to each other). While he was on iso, rooster #2 took over as head dude, along with standing outside the fence of roo #1 and taunting him. We let #1 out of iso today and the cock fighting started almost immediately. So what do we do? Hate to put him down because he actually is a great protector. But don't want to get rid of #2 because he's a super friendly guy. Pic of the offending roo here, with #2-recently-self-promoted-to-#1 in the background. View attachment 2635250

The escalation in aggression could have been triggered by the recently hatched chicks.
Regardless, if you've got children involved, the EE needs to go. You can keep him isolated and try to give him away if you don't want to kill him. Explain what he's like and maybe he'll get lucky and someone that wants a good protector and can handle him better might want him.
Good luck.

 

[Reggan]

I know this thread is a few weeks old... Did your rooster ever calm down? I have the same thing going on (occasionally) since chicks hatched a month ago. He's a bit over a year and been great, but definitely having moments since the chicks have been around. Last night he was a complete ass. He's a big buff brahma.
He is very good with the girls, with the chicks and a great protector. I have zero complaints up until now.

 

[amykbennett]

I know this thread is a few weeks old... Did your rooster ever calm down? I have the same thing going on (occasionally) since chicks hatched a month ago. He's a bit over a year and been great, but definitely having moments since the chicks have been around. Last night he was a complete ass. He's a big buff brahma.
He is very good with the girls, with the chicks and a great protector. I have zero complaints up until now.

You know what, we ended up putting him in isolation for almost 2 weeks. During that time, I went in daily, held him and talked to him. He and I became close and he will now come to me, talk to me and sit on my lap. The result is now a much calmer, docile rooster. We now have him back in general population. But the first couple of days transitioning him back was rough, because the smaller rooster didn't want to let go of his newfound dominance. They had to fight it out for a couple of days (we monitored continuously until we felt they were safe together), but figured out the pecking order. This pic below was what it was like for a few days. It was pretty ridiculous. But it's very peaceful now, thankfully.

 

[Reggan]

Thanks. Maybe I'll give that a whirl after this weekend. He and I have always had an understanding and he typically talks to me (he's very vocal, but softly so) and just does what he supposed to do. He can be a goof too. He loves my dogs so maybe he can hang in the garage at night and in the backyard with them during the day. Thanks again