Have a few questions for experienced Buckeye owners.
I have a cockerel that will be a year old early June. He has been a good boy. he would even go into his separate pen whenever I gave him the signal to go. He's just been very easy to live with. Until this week.
He was a very friendly boy growing up, and even good when he came into puberty. But I started to notice that he was getting a bit more aggressive toward me in the last month or so. My cockerel/rooster experience in the past has been that when I walk in they get out of my way but this boy started standing and not moving. Then it has progressed to a threatening stance. Then, when I was trying to get him to move somewhere, he decided to try to attack my shoes/feet/legs.
Most of the instances have been in response to what he sees as a threat so I've given him a couple of weeks and some space and it's usually okay. But this morning I was going to get him to move and he stood up to me and tried to attack me repeatedly. I had to use my foot to ...not "kick" but close to it more than 5 times to make him fly backwards. He kept coming back over and over and wouldn't back down. I didn't want to back down either as I didn't want him to think he had the upper hand. I was able to move sideways a bit each time, facing him the whole time, until I was able to pick up a small lawn footstool to hold between him and I ....he tried to attack that too, then turned and went off into the wooded area.
Got my husband and the 2 of us got him moved back into his pen. Tonight when I went out to the pen, he was ready for attack again. When I turned to go out of his pen gate he attacked the back of my legs.
I will not be keeping this boy.
I had one of his hatch-mates that went to another family in the Fall and he became very aggressive there. They had to remove him as he was attacking when they went out to feed. At first I thought it was because she didn't have rooster experience. But now I'm seeing this behavior, I'm wondering if it was just the demeanor of these guys.
What is everyone's experience? Are your cockerels/roosters aggressive? Is this possibly just one line?
I've heard that there is a line that is "mean as snakes" to quote an owner. The pullets are as friendly and docile as can be. Just love the girls. But I won't keep a bird that has that kind of demeanor or feel that I have to carry a weapon with me if I go out to the yard.
The "mean as snakes" thing may just be a wives tale as no one can verify that is really a true story.
Here is what I recommend if you want to give him a chance to figure out who is really boss. You are going to have to play "chicken" with him, which means, you be the dominant rooster. If you watch the behavior of the birds, you will see when one bird really dominates another, they mount them and grab the back of their heads and peck them on the head. So, here is what I have done and it works sometimes and they never attack again, or they don't and they go to the pot. Corner the little poophead and step on him, smoosh him down in a corner and grab the back of his head at the same time and pull on some of those feathers just as a rooster would to another one. Give him a few good "pecks" to the head for good measure. Keep him there for a good couple of minutes, then let him up and see what happens. Maybe try this a couple of times, but I find after the first time, they want nothing to do with you. Allowing him to continue to come at you or a stool or whatever, or backing away out of the pen tells him that he won. Remember, you are dealing with instinctive, protective aggression. They are YOUR hens, and you are top cock on the block. I even boot my roosters off the hens when I am near them and they mount them just to remind them who is boss. If you don't feel you are willing to give him a second chance, which is completely your subjective right to do, then get him out of there. It is pretty typical to see some roosters get a little overly protective in the spring when everything has "the fever", but I squash their ideas of being dominant over me as soon as they even drop a wing.
I saw a video the other day of a woman who posted how her three roosters, who are her "pets" would come after her repeatedly and she would yell, "OW" and they would come at her more and then spur her as soon as she turned. She says, "They do this every day!" Well, why would anyone keep them around? Break them or eat them.
Temperament in Buckeyes should be a huge factor in breeding. I have some from last year that fought each other relentlessly, but they have never come at me, except the last one I hatched and he is heading to dinner soon. I refuse to breed aggressive roosters, no matter the quality. I have only one other time had one drop a wing, used the method I suggested and he literally would purr to me when I went in the pen after that. I brought another bloodline into my Buckeye flock a couple of years ago, and until then, I had no problems. After using the other line, I have seen a definite increase in fighting, like you see with Game type birds. It really ticks me off too. I want the calm, friendly Bucks like I used to have before that, so I am working on getting there through tough culling and probably getting some stock from Urch this year to calm things down with what I have already.
Good luck. Don't take too much off one of those boys before you get rid of them and get someone who is going to know his place.
