Now Roos I definitely have something to say about Matella,
First off it's just a daggum shame that you're on the other flippin' side of the country and I cant give you this
beautiful OE cock I have right now. He truly is all that you're dreaming of in a Roo. He's super friendly to all humans, sounds the alarm for hawks, has flogged dogs, cats, geese and I believe a donkey that he thought was getting too sniffy around the girls. Of course, being an OE, he'll absolutely beat the stew out of any competing Roo (or kill him if he won't stand down or run). In all he's the yard-bird Roo of your dreams. As an aside, this OE Roo crossed over Buckeye Hens produced some of the best dern meat birds I've ever had- grew out in 14 weeks, huge breasts, Buckeye thighs, roasted tender and fine-grained meat
.
Roo behavior, namely aggression, is a characteristic that we, like Pathfinders, actively select
against. That being said, it's important that folks understand some Roo behaviors. For instance, if I am 'harassing' a hen, like picking her up and moving her out of a nest box to pick up eggs, and a Roo comes over and jumps at me, I do
not punish this behavior nor do I consider this aggression. This is a Roo protecting his hen and the attack only lasts as long as she hollers, which is to say about 2-3 seconds. Often times there's just the rush over and the jump but no contact. I consider this
desireable behavior in my Roos as it shows me a facet of what I believe to be a vigor component (who needs a lazy Roo?). And it shows me that they're alert to their hens -that they'll be good stewards of their hens as they range during the day. As long as they remain docile or respectable to me and other humans at all other times I do not consider them aggressive and they have no fear of being sent to freezer camp.
When we first started out with Buckeyes years ago, the very first Roo we had was aggressive. He was also scrawny, and not the best representative of the breed but we had a superior hen with phenomenal type but I digress...Anywho, this Roo took into his head that he was going to attack at any given opportunity. If you took your eyes offa' him more than 5 seconds you had chicken-leg-rex trying to take a plug outta' you or flogging you. I'm ashamed to say I kicked that bird across the yard... a coupla' times. We re-homed him as a yard bird to a free range flock, but in all honesty, he probably should have been culled and not given the opportunity to pass on his genes. His offspring were a different story, the first generation (and the only one that fella was used for) were all pullets. Seriously, I'm not lying here, he had one breeding season and every last one turned out to be a pullet. Generation 2 brought in an outcross of superior quality, type, color and temper. In that generation we had 2 out of 2 dozen that were insanely aggressive and at a young age. Guess which one had the superior type and size (size was a real issue back then)- yep the meanest one. I didn't breed him, but the close second was docile, so I went with him. Second generation was a big hatch and an out of 'em all 1 or 2 were mildly aggressive and tasted good out of the oven. Generation 3 saw no aggressive cockerels and we've had no full-on aggressive or man-fighting birds since.
Every once in a blue moon, a male with aggressive tendencies will show up in a hatch. Behavior usually sets on between week 16 and 24. It starts as a bold cockerel that then acts extremely flighty and culminating in sneak attacks from behind. And not just peck peck peck, like full on jumping and trying to hit the back of your legs. It's usually around feeding time too. I watch the bold and flighty to see if they progress to man-fighters. Not all do. Some just turn out to be superior cocks; but the aggressive ones, they seem to taste extra good...At our place, if a bird is aggressive and is in all other ways a superior specimen, they still get culled. Our experience is this a heritable trait. It took us 3 breeding seasons to be reasonably rid of the trait. Why would we in one bad breeding decision, ruin
years of good breeding decisions? Why in the world would we propagate something as odious
that?
