View attachment 1693221 Is that even possible? I have a black sex link rooster that I have a love hate relationship with. He’s so beautiful but he is such a jerk. Hes just so mean. This is the only real good pic I have of him and my husband took it.
Part of the problem I see most often in the ‘bad rooster’ threads is directly attributable to a persons perception of their rooster. Your rooster has absolutely no idea about good and bad behavior. He is behaving in a perfectly acceptable manner as far as he is concerned, should you be able to discuss such a point with him. You may think you’re Mr or Mrs lovely who bring him food, provides him with shelter, cares for the hens, etc, but he obviously doesn’t see it that way.
The question is why?
He is not going to be able to explain to you why he behaves as he does so you are going to have to work it out.
Some people are not interested and don’t have the time or patience and in such cases it is probably best all round if they get rid of the rooster and in my opinion, never get another. I read of people who have got one rooster after another until they’ve found one that behaves as they would like. This may be okay when dealing with people because you just ‘dump’ the person, but unfortunately with roosters in the above situation, people kill them. It’s a regrettable view imo that because a creature other than a human behaves in a way that one can’t cope with or don’t like, killing that creature is on the options list. Apply that to humans and we wouldn’t have the population problems we have.
Step 1 with a rooster is to realise that the hens and the territory he and they inhabit is his; not yours. For some people this first step is way to difficult because it effects all their conception regarding rights of ownership and ego.
Interestingly I’ve found a marked difference in the behavior of the chickens when they are in my house to their behavior when I am in their territory, even with the hens. Some may find this ridiculous but chickens differentiate and adjust their behavior from territory to territory. It is fairly obvious if you watch chickens in a free range setting moving between territories. They are in general a lot smarter than we give them credit for.
It’s also important to accept that roosters are supposed to be aggressive; it’s not a personality fault, it’s how they protect their genes.
Then you're left with the problem of working out if the rooster sees you as a member of his flock, or as a threat. If he sees you as a flock member and you aren’t behaving as he believes you should (just like some will try to force a rooster to behave as they think they should) then you have probably led the rooster to consider you in this way. A check on how you’ve dealt with your rooster in the past should give you some insight. If you’ve petted him and hand fed him and played with him and the hens, he may well see you as a flock member.
If he sees you as a threat it’s generally not that he’s scared of you, this should be obvious if he is prepared to attack you, he’s concerned that you are in some way undermining his authority and a great many people do this without even thinking about it.
The easiest starting point is to accept that he is the boss. They are his hens and not yours, it’s his territory and not yours.
If for example we were talking about a pack of wolves your behavior would be rather different because your expectation would be different.
Yes chickens have been to some extent domesticated but many are a long way from tame.
I suggest you read all the articles on roosters at BYC. Read some of the threads. Then try the various suggestions until you either run out of patience or find a working compromise.
