Weird Rooster behaviour

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I've got a roo, got him full grown like 1.5 y.o. He did really well for about the first 4 months, then all of a sudden he started trying to attack.. I did the ignore thing, I can't catch him except at night when he's asleep.. which won't do any good as he'll not know what he's being caught for.. so now I talk to him, tell him don't even think about it, and he's caught the toe of my shoe a few times. I've had to forbid people to enter the run or coop with shorts or skirts on because of him, he's going to be finding himself in the chicken pot next time.. I've got another roo coming up and don't want him getting the idea he can get by with it too.
 
Thank you for your response! Good to know I am not the only Mama who get's attacked! The hard part is feeding them. I dare not put my head down to dump the food because he would go after my head! Just not sure what to do. I don't want to freak out my four hens if I give him away. They are used to him. I just don't know what to do!
 
starri33 said:
I've got a roo, got him full grown like 1.5 y.o. He did really well for about the first 4 months, then all of a sudden he started trying to attack.. I did the ignore thing, I can't catch him except at night when he's asleep.. which won't do any good as he'll not know what he's being caught for.. so now I talk to him, tell him don't even think about it, and he's caught the toe of my shoe a few times. I've had to forbid people to enter the run or coop with shorts or skirts on because of him, he's going to be finding himself in the chicken pot next time.. I've got another roo coming up and don't want him getting the idea he can get by with it too.
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Thanks! Exactly, I figure even though I ordered 4 female Lavender Ameraucana's, one will be a Roo! So I'm very tempted to get rid of Mr Meanie and raise up the new four after they are 12 weeks, with my other hens. Hoping that a young Roo would be able to be held and become more docile. But also realizing it is the same breed as the other, just a Lavender not a B/S!!
 
deedledumpling1 said:
Thanks! Exactly, I figure even though I ordered 4 female Lavender Ameraucana's, one will be a Roo! So I'm very tempted to get rid of Mr Meanie and raise up the new four after they are 12 weeks, with my other hens. Hoping that a young Roo would be able to be held and become more docile. But also realizing it is the same breed as the other, just a Lavender not a B/S!!
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Your older guy may just be hardwired that way, maybe his dad was a mean guy! I'm thinking that's the situation with mine as I handled him a lot till the mean switch got flipped!
Your new guy may be a perfect gentleman in every way. It would be good if he didn't pick up aggression though....
 
Wendy Case said:
Your older guy may just be hardwired that way, maybe his dad was a mean guy! I'm thinking that's the situation with mine as I handled him a lot till the mean switch got flipped!
Your new guy may be a perfect gentleman in every way. It would be good if he didn't pick up aggression though....
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Thank you Wendy! I need to think on this a bit more, but this just can't go on like this!
 
Good grief.
Facepalm.gif

It's not a mating dance. He was trying to herd you. There is no such thing as a mating dance, like there is no eggsong or many other behaviors wrongly attributed to aggression and domination.
There are many different types of peck, many of which are in fact displays of affection.
I have cockerels here that peck my feet. Not one has ever attacked me.
When people see hens peck roosters they often call this aggression but what in fact is happening is the hen is grooming the places the rooster can't reach.
I could go on for hours.
All I will write is the level of ignorance regarding chicken behavior is astounding and particularly so for roosters.
 
I helped an older couple out once with a really aggressive black Australorp rooster they added to their backyard flock of six or eight brown-egg-layer hens. Lovely looking bird, probably an ex-show bird, and already a couple of years old, and he INSTANTLY took charge of the girls and established himself as their new leader, so a good flock rooster in that sense. But very aggressive--he'd already nailed the husband when he first tried to go into the chickens' spacious run and cut his leg up above the knee when I visited. I don't fool around with big adult roosters with long spurs who've got priors when it comes to attacking people. Luckily, the couple had a metal trash can so I took the lid in with me as a shield. Well! That rooster streaked instantly across the run at me in full attack mode and, again very luckily, struck the lid full on with a very satisfying KLANG! The shock of hitting something so solid plus the noise so unnerved him that he ran off and into the coop...I went after him and found him hiding in a nest box. Brought him out and looked him over, showed the couple how to safely hold him...actually, once in hand, he turned out to be quite docile and seemed to enjoy having his wattles rubbed, etc. I lost touch with the couple after that so don't know if the lid encounter permanently cooled that rooster's jets or what, but at least his new owners had had a good demonstration of how to protect themselves and some idea of how to win him over. Protecting yourself is always paramount, of course, but honestly, just matter-of-fact handling done at your convenience whenever you like and for just as long as you like, calms down a lot of these over-aggressive jokers. After all, you're the superior human...they're just lowly chickens. Once you establish that, in whatever way works best for you, most of the aggressiveness caused by a rooster simply not knowing his place tends to disappear...

That said, some birds ARE hyper-aggressive due to having crummy inherent dispositions and those IMO are beyond hope and will never be safe. Think of them as the feathery equivalent of suffering from rage syndrome, as some dogs do. They're not safe either. At least we can eat the nasty chickens.
 
Wendy Case said:
I understand EXACTLY what you mean. I'm in the same situation as you are and not quite sure what to do about it! I did have someone offer to take him yesterday. I'm seriously thinking about it.
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Yes, I'm putting feelers out. Will maybe put on local list when I get a bit more input. But I have to travel and am afraid for other's who house sit for me!
 

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