Tips on working with a mean 2 year old rooster?

[Sea Wolf]

Best way to deal with him is to get rid of him. You also do NOT want to be keeping any roosters bred by him. You don't breed a mean rooster and continue that line. There are plenty of nice roosters around. I have a Ameracauna rooster that is borderline retarded but also takes good care of the hens. He is very nice and I didn't spend a lot of time handling him when he was young. He's not even remotely mean. A mean rooster is going to eventually seriously injure one of your kids ... or a visiting friend. They can jump high enough to get at someones face and they will try.

 

[Trevorusn]

So what has worked for me and my big fellow was if he ever came at me, I picked him up and carried him around for a bit, especially in front of the ladies. I would then peck the back of his skull not too far south of the base of his comb with my finger, as that is a common chicken dominance pecking spot. Two or three rounds of this shaped him up, and now he is respectful of my presence, if he is calm its easy for me to pick him up for health checks and whatnot, if he is excited he simply retreats. If I am handling one of his ladies and they sound off, he will hurry to investigate but then resume what he was doing rather than get confrontational, as he has learned such behavior warrants another " trip" round the yard. Handling as a chick has little to nothing to do with behavior later on in a chicken's life, and using a shoe or boot to push him away will not address anything, it may even intensify his behavior.

 

[Trevorusn]

Thank you! I will probably catch him tomorrow or Saturday and put him in a cage for a few days and see if he’s a bit more calm. I do think he’s just protecting his flock because all my birds associate bad feelings with my net since I’ve had to catch them all at least once. I don’t know if my husband is exaggerating but he said our Black Jersey Giant is like 2.5 to 3 feet high. I’ll have to go measure him tomorrow and see. I’m bad at estimating height.

Lol how old is he and what color JG?? If you want to rehome him I'd love to check him out!

 

[IamRainey]

I had a brute that my husband hatched. He attacked us, visitors and kids. I tried EVERYTHING. Finally when we got a new puppy I put my foot down and he was gone. I think once they attack you just can't get it out of them. I hated being scared to walk around my yard and having to carry an umbrella or net to ward him off. There are so many sweet roosters out there who need homes. Don't put up with a bad one.

PRECISELY this! We want to be caring and humane owners but being intimidated in your own yard is just unacceptable. The mean roos have to go!!! However you do that.

 

[IamRainey]

So what has worked for me and my big fellow was if he ever came at me, I picked him up and carried him around for a bit, especially in front of the ladies. I would then peck the back of his skull not too far south of the base of his comb with my finger, as that is a common chicken dominance pecking spot. Two or three rounds of this shaped him up, and now he is respectful of my presence, if he is calm its easy for me to pick him up for health checks and whatnot, if he is excited he simply retreats. If I am handling one of his ladies and they sound off, he will hurry to investigate but then resume what he was doing rather than get confrontational, as he has learned such behavior warrants another " trip" round the yard. Handling as a chick has little to nothing to do with behavior later on in a chicken's life, and using a shoe or boot to push him away will not address anything, it may even intensify his behavior.

Happy for what works for you but do you feel you can trust him to be equally submissive to another person or a child who may be near him? That's what resolved it for me. I just didn't have that confidence.

Unfortunately, we're in the vND quarantine zone so I couldn't move or rehome our mean guy. The only way out for us was to put him down and that's what kept us hanging on for so long. But, in the end, doing just that was a good decision and we're so much happier and more relaxed around our backyard knowing that everyone's safe.

 

[IamRainey]

You also do NOT want to be keeping any roosters bred by him.

Is that absolutely certain?

The rooster we have now is the progeny of the one we were forced to put down. So far, at 8mo, Rocky has demonstrated no signs of aggression. I'm counting on that because he's the only way we can refresh our flock within the vND quarantine zone.

Of course he's carrying 2 sets of genes. One from his aggressive Black Cooper Marans daddy and one from his docile Cream Legbar mama. I'm hoping there's at least a 50% chance we can rely on his continued sociable behavior.

 

[ChickenChic7507]

Wow guys! Have you tried picking him up everyday and carrying him around? He could possibly just feel the need to protect his ladies. Carry him around with you EVERYWHERE. Let him know your the boss and your not going to hurt his ladies. After he gets better with you try having everyone else hold him and pet him. Also next time he tries to attack you pin him down. Hold him there until he stops struggling then hold him down a while longer. Unfortunately if these seem to do nothing maybe he should end up joining someone for dinner. He shouldn’t be sold to anyone else as a pet.

(I haven’t read everyone’s post sorry if I’m repeating something someone might have already said)

 

[hysop]

Lol how old is he and what color JG?? If you want to rehome him I'd love to check him out!

He will be two years old this March. And he’s a black jersey giant. He’s actually been doing a lot better. We moved him to a new area so he hasn’t established his territory and I talk softly to him and have started giving scratch feed as a treat every couple of days. It seems to be working. Here’s a pic of him and his hens today. I will continue working with him. One Red Sex Link is not in the pic, she was in the nesting boxes laying an egg.

 

[mag7mm]

Have had a few roosters that met there maker from attacking the wife. My opinion is once they start attacking it is hard to get them to stop, they may seem to calm down but than a week later there back at the attitude again. Last thing you want is anyone nervous about being out with your flock. The experience with the birds should always be good for kids ect.

 

[jspeese]

I wound up with an aggressive New Hampshire Red rooster (a sexing mistake, they were all supposed to be pullets) in my present flock. After he drew blood on me a couple of times, I got rid of him. He was also rough on the hens, even though the ratio was 15+ hens to one of him, a lot of hens had bare backs.