Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad rooster.

[ariri30]

I had the same experience with a bantam rooster. I was the only person he attacked and he was brutal; one time a bent down to do something in the yard and he sneaked up on me and went for my face. He got my ear and it bled heavily for a long time. The guineas didn't like him and used to keep him in line if they were around.
We debated culling him but I was sure he would take revenge on me, I'd probably choke on the meat if I cooked him. In the end, a local wild animal culled him for us.

A few years later, I had another bantam roo that was okay with people but killed a large, full sized rooster. Luckily a coworker took him.

So I agree with the others. Unless you want to carry a broom around every time you go outside, he should go. He will only get worse.

BTW - I don't keep bantams any more because of those 2 roos. Has anyone else had that experience with them?

I have two Dutch roosters now. They are so friendly and they love to be cuddled. I hope they won’t turn evil. They are 6 months old now

 

[Shorty22366]

I had the same experience with a bantam rooster. I was the only person he attacked and he was brutal; one time a bent down to do something in the yard and he sneaked up on me and went for my face. He got my ear and it bled heavily for a long time. The guineas didn't like him and used to keep him in line if they were around.
We debated culling him but I was sure he would take revenge on me, I'd probably choke on the meat if I cooked him. In the end, a local wild animal culled him for us.

A few years later, I had another bantam roo that was okay with people but killed a large, full sized rooster. Luckily a coworker took him.

So I agree with the others. Unless you want to carry a broom around every time you go outside, he should go. He will only get worse.

BTW - I don't keep bantams any more because of those 2 roos. Has anyone else had that experience with them?

I have Bantam roos are the worst. I have had 11 and all were buttwipes.

 

[Bamabexchicks]

View attachment 1733557
Meet Debbie. We thought he was a girl when he was young because he was a little behind the other cockerels in coloring and such, hence the name Debbie. Debbie is, to put it lightly, a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad rooster. He’s the beta of the flock and has, thus far, attacked me (his favorite person to try to spur), both of my sisters, my boyfriend, my sister’s boyfriend, and my cousin whom he had never met before. He luckily has very short and dull spurs, however my patience has grown thinner with time. Today he has finally done the one thing I said would guarantee his demise: he broke skin. I was giving scratch to everyone, with some poultry conditioner added because my old highschool’s ag day is coming up and my sister and I plan to take some of my chooks to show the kids. All I did was walk around him, I wasn’t even looking at him, and he attacked feet first. He got me good enough to leave scraped and welts and one place he did, in fact, break skin. Debbie has been doing this since a couple months after the flock was well established and five of the other roosters were sold off, which was in July or August of last year. I’m sick of it. I don’t necessarily want to kill him but in that moment I did and had I been able to catch him, I would have. I don’t know what to do. I’ll kill him if I have to, I’ll rehome him if someone wants him, I just can’t deal with him anymore. I’m at my wits end. This is a rooster I hand-feed treats (like raspberries and blueberries and such) and he STILL attacks me! Any advice?

I hope you will consider this article before you cull:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/dealing-with-and-taming-aggressive-roosters.74600/

 

[wild chick]

I'm glad you are giving him one more week. Not because I think he deserves it or that you can fix it - I'll be really happy if you can make it work. But it makes you feel better when you do have to cull a bad one that you tried everything. But I'll never spend the time & effort again, just me. To add one more story, I raised 21 chicks, none were held or coddled, and kept 2 best looking roosters, one rooster attacked feet first at 6 months so off he went, as soon as he was gone the other "good" rooster started attacking. I spent well over 8 months doing every single thing suggested on this forum except culling, including the Beekissed method. MONTHS. He attacked my 77 year old friend and would stalk her constantly. Got her in the face one time. She insisted to keep trying. Finally it got to the point where we carried sticks everywhere we went - acres of free range and he would leave his hens to come stalk her. She couldn't run him down and he knew it, but I could. I'd run him until he'd squat and hide and shake and pant from being out of breath then I'd beat him within an inch of his life. He would leave us alone for about 3 days then it would start all over. In the meantime I let one of the hens hatch his eggs, keeping 1 male. When this young cockerel was about 6 months old I put the mean daddy in the freezer and named the youngster Stuart, informed him that it would be Stew for short and all it took was ONE attack. Stuart was raised by the flock, not me and those older hens gave him a really hard time when he tried to take charge. He's now going on two years old and has never even given us the stink-eye and wouldn't dream of attacking. I will never ever try to re-hab a bad rooster again. There's a good one around every corner.

 

[Judy Todd]

View attachment 1733557
Meet Debbie. We thought he was a girl when he was young because he was a little behind the other cockerels in coloring and such, hence the name Debbie. Debbie is, to put it lightly, a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad rooster. He’s the beta of the flock and has, thus far, attacked me (his favorite person to try to spur), both of my sisters, my boyfriend, my sister’s boyfriend, and my cousin whom he had never met before. He luckily has very short and dull spurs, however my patience has grown thinner with time. Today he has finally done the one thing I said would guarantee his demise: he broke skin. I was giving scratch to everyone, with some poultry conditioner added because my old highschool’s ag day is coming up and my sister and I plan to take some of my chooks to show the kids. All I did was walk around him, I wasn’t even looking at him, and he attacked feet first. He got me good enough to leave scraped and welts and one place he did, in fact, break skin. Debbie has been doing this since a couple months after the flock was well established and five of the other roosters were sold off, which was in July or August of last year. I’m sick of it. I don’t necessarily want to kill him but in that moment I did and had I been able to catch him, I would have. I don’t know what to do. I’ll kill him if I have to, I’ll rehome him if someone wants him, I just can’t deal with him anymore. I’m at my wits end. This is a rooster I hand-feed treats (like raspberries and blueberries and such) and he STILL attacks me! Any advice?

Put hiim in the soup pot, before he really hurts someone, esp. you.

 

[Birds of a Feather]

I thought all roosters were evil until I had Dutch Bantams. Most of them were very well-behaved and not scary at all!

 

[EileenC]

I never had any problems with my rooster. Out of some of the suggestions, I would first try putting the treats out first and then let the chickens out to find them. I think it would be too late to try picking it up and condition him to get use to you. When they are chicks is the best time to condition them to get use to you or your family members to picking them up. He may get worse when he gets older so you may have to either rehome or kill him.

 

[ariri30]

I thought all roosters were evil until I had Dutch Bantams. Most of them were very well-behaved and not scary at all!

I love my two Dutch bantam roosters. They are really sweet even with the chickens. They are always calling them to give them every little bug they find in the yard

 

[chicksandchores]

Alright folks, sorry about the late reply. This is day four of his rehabilitation using beekissed's method, and today was the first day he started to be a buttmuncher again. I was out working my garden up by hand (lack of a tiller or tractor unfortunately means lots and lots of manual labor) and the flock was across the road from me (there's an empty wooded lot over there and 17 acres behind the house plus a cow field nearby... probably the luckiest flock in the county). It was not my intention to have my back to them, and I did have my switch nearby. I heard him start running towards me, not in a hard run but definitely his battle "thumpthumpthump," so I turned around and stared him down. Against the advice, I haven't been treading carefully to not challenge him, I openly challenge both Henry (alpha roo who is also getting the beekissed method applied) and Debbie while I have my switch in hand. I figure, let them try me if they like but I'm trying to make it clear that he is no longer the only one looking for a fight. I randomly run them off the scratch while I'm out there, I try to stop any mating or crowing, they're not allowed in the coop or at the feeder while I'm in the coop, etc.

Okay, okay, I digress. He ran towards me a little ways and I stared him down, at which point he stopped and decided he was "just looking at the grass," and I turned back around. Repeat probably two times more and I started towards him, switch in hand, just walking calmly and proudly. He starts running from me, looking back over his shoulder the entire time. I started to leave him alone but every time I would stop he would stop and turn towards me again with his shoulder just very slightly dropped. So across the road we went, me following, him running. He jumped the ditch, landed on the embankment, looked me dead in the eye, and you know what that turd did? He crowed right at me while looking me in the eyes. So across the ditch I went. Chased him, he jumped back across and crowed AGAIN, looking me in the eyes again that time too! I chased him some more, and at this point my switch is pretty short (stripping the small limbs from it weakened it and made it shorter on the first day), so I only caught him twice under the bum. He ran off into the woods through a briar thicket and while I'm all about rehabbing this naughty boy and training him, I'm not traveling through a briar thicket in leggings! So I went back to my gardening. He proceeds to crow a good 10 times, every time hiding in the briar thicket and looking directly at me. I know, because I turned around and stared him down while he did it. Hopefully, since he never did attack even though he put some good thought into it, that means we're making progress. If we aren't, or if he goes back to it, I'll decide whether to cull him or not based on how many pure orpington chicks hatch out from under my hen tomorrow.. we shall see!

 

[chicksandchores]

On another note... thank you all for the stories and replies! I definitely would have culled him a long time ago if it weren't for the fact that his spurs are so very dull. They truly are so dull that I can mash my thumb against them and it only hurts because of the pressure, not because they have any sharpness to them. They look more like a fifth toe halfway up his leg than anything And while he probably could be a good guard roo for the flock, both he and Henry truly suck at it. I lost two 10 week old chicks and three full grown hens to hawks because they were oblivious. They've gotten a bit better now, but not much... Also, I really hope my one bantam roo (still an itty bitty cockerel only six weeks old right now) doesn't turn into a tiny terror! He's a barred buff cochin (I think) and I really want to keep him around.