I will post some pictures later on today! Ah i see, well if i compare him to the other male chick he seems to have more grey rather than dark grey - and less barring on his wings (the main feathers they have at the moment...).
Ah i see, they sound really great! So could the "overly protective"-ness tend towards agressiveness to humans? At the moment i cant say too much on their behaviour, i hand feed them and they are a bit skittish but less than the females (as is often the case with male chicks) but im not sure how much i should handle them, my first rooster (cochin bantam) was hardly handled as his foster mother was VERY protective, and he turned out great! So i guess we will have to see how these 2 turn out...
after spending a decade on a cattle ranch and living with the animals always in close proximity -- I have a differing perspective of aggressive and normal animal behavior. Maybe because the bulls weighed 2,000 pounds and working with them in a smallish pen -- you had better be totally aware and respectful of exactly where the male
IS, exactly what signals he is sending, what he is doing, how agitated he is -- and were he is looking. -- In some ways I would consider aggressive an unwarranted attack. But then what is the line between protecting his family and being 'evil' to humans.
I have had two CL roosters that were really quite mean...and they were both dispatched because of that -- (and a few other things)---- The rest fall into what I would expect. One rooster here is fearful strangely enough and always runs when I enter the pen. I am always aware of what they are doing, where they are and how they are acting. Picking up and dropping food/treats for the female is one thing....picking up and dropping stones, sticks -- to me a sign he is agitated (this really confused me when I first saw this behavior). Two of them here I consider 'mean' - but they never get the opportunity to express it. -- For one I carry a squirt bottle into his pen and when he looks at me askance I'm ready to squirt water right in his face if he acts with even the slightest aggression - he always will walk away, back down or go on about his business. I need to only hold or shake the bottle -- occasionally squirt in the air -- The bottle hangs on the fence outside his coop run.
I have an Omlet Eglu - The classic Pod kind that you can't even get in the USA any longer....infact, I think from
ebay I purchased the very first one imported to the USA it is in perfect condition too! Once I was reaching in the egg-port to get eggs -- and the rooster I had in there with 2 hens came after my arm and made some holes in it. ouch. - Now when I replace feed and water at one end, I have put scratch at the opposite end to occupy them. It isn't ideal -- but there are ways to handle them that are very easy, safe and no harm done to either them or myself. I don't believe that trying to dominate or out-rooster (alpha-dog stuff) the rooster is productive or useful. JMO. This breeding cycle I am working to lower tail angles, and when I have that trait--- I will work on disposition.
All that being said. I would NOT allow small children with my roosters (and would be nervous to have small children around any breeding male, of any species actually) - to a 2,000 pound bull a toddler or a 3-year old is a predator and needs to be treated as such and killed-- so I have been told that their brains work that way) Had a little girl of about 8 over here that thought it was fun to tease the rooster and run in front of his fence so he would chase her. Needless to say - she has not been back.
If you have little children - be super careful and extra watchful. I may have some genetics that contain a mean gene and many other people's flocks won't have that.... If it is yourself and other adults use the normal caution that you would use with animals..... HTH
