what age will roosters turn MEAN?

[cmom]

Not all Roosters are mean. When a Rooster attacks you you have to stand your ground. I had one that attacked me and I gave him a boot clear across my yard with the side of my foot and he went ass over applecart across the yard. A couple of days later he tried it again so I booted him again. After that he hasn't tried it again. If you chase them with a broom then they will be afraid of the broom and not you so the broom becomes the alpha not you. Also if you can pick the rooster up and take hold his comb and pull his head down until it touches his chest. Do not let his head up until he relaxes then let his head come back up and repeat and as long as he is resistant with his head down in his chest just hold it there until he quits resisting. Do this until you can put his head down without him resisting. This shows him that you are the alpha. I have had a lot of roosters and it works. Also if the Roo does this to another member of the family the process has to be repeated until he recognizes that person too as an alpha. This has worked for me and my birds.

 

[Angeljim95]

I'm sorry to hear about your roosters issue with temperament, I say you might as well make some chicken soup with him before his babies catch up to his aggresiveness

good luck though I hope you figure everything out

 

[WendyGrama]

My issue isn't really with the Big Roo, I am planning a portrait of him called 'Bigger than Life' unless of course he turns mean to the hen's and that I have experienced from others and luckily never been my own issue. I can work around him if I have to with kids out there, but I just don't have time to be consistent with him so I doubt we are going to be very consistent with training either.

I do beleive genetics has a lot to do with attitude and as mentioned before he has always shown a very assertive and skittish side. I have never chased him around and I assure you the garbage can lid is strictly offensive and not defensive. I don't shoo him with it or hit him I just make sure its between me and him when he trys to strike. He is jumping at least waist high (I'm 5'3") with spurs in front (they are only about 1/2" currently) he meets the solid metal of the lid instead of my much softer body and I am sure he associates that with striking me. I have shoved kicked him a few times and always follow up with backing him off until he walks away, but as soon as my back is turned... a few minutes...

Like I said, its just getting dark too early and staying dark too late for me to deal with this consistently. I am working at dividing the pen a bit at a time, may try an 8" crawl space for the hen's we'll see what works. Got the chicken doors on in time for the extreme cold heading our way and makes it easier for me to get thru my routine without confrontation too.

Thanx for all the input. I'm sure with time I could back him off me, its others entering the pen that would be a hassle and will really depend on how he treats his girls!

 

[SkyWarrior]

Sounds like a trip to freezer camp is in order. Soup is good food!

 

[flowerchicks]

I had a mean silkie roo, and I also have scars on my legs from him. When he was about a year old, I got another silkie who turned out to be a roo. He was very goofy, skittish, and yet friendly. Well, after about 2 months with the flock, he somehow took over as top roo. All of a sudden, my mean rooster avoided me, I couldn't get him to attack me (I tried, just to see if he was reformed). I was able to pick him up and hold him and he would actually close his eyes and relax. The "evil eye" he had as a mean rooster, disappeared. So, since you have 2 roosters in the making, maybe one of those will take over and the mean roo will stop being mean.

You might try caging him with the flock, so he can see them but not interact. Kind of like rooster prison. Especially if you have to cockerels who can take over the flock.

Oh, I also got 2 chicks from the mean roo. One turned out to be a rooster and the other a pullet. They were both killed by preditors, but they were both the sweetest chickens I had, so having a mean daddy didn't affect them at all. The "nice" silkie's chicks are as skittish and clueless as he was.

 

[TrystInn]

Not necessarily promoting what I do, just sharing the experience. Fwiw, when I go out to the chickens I'm wearing a long Duluth Trading company firehose jacket, galoshes and a hat. So I'm an odd, but familiar sight to them.

Our splash rooster, Big Blue, is a full-sized Cochin who takes care of our free range ladies. Calm as grass on the hill. I can walk over and pick him up most of the time, other times he walks away as I approach. I attribute this to always handling him at night in the coop, so he's very much accustomed to me. So much so that I use him as a model at Chicken 101 workshops. Most folks are in awe of how polite and tolerant he is of strangers. If I walk up to him and he rustles his wings, I rustle my arms back and he walks away. THAT SAID, when he is on patrol, walking the nursery mile (as we call the area where we keep the broody hutches) I do not approach him in a dominant fashion, nor do I schedule workshops with him then. He also keeps an eye on our ducklings, oddly enough. I do keep unfamiliar men, even my brother-in-law away from him in hatching season. If my BIL is around them, I arm him with a very long handled koi pond net because my BIL made the unholy mistake of feeding Big Blue's hens worms during breeding season. Oh boy. Open season on BIL

Also, I want to make the very specific point that whatever we might think, a screeching child playfully chasing the hens is a predator in a rooster's instincts, so we don't allow the neighborhood kids in the backyard during chick season, either. On a related note, a few times the rooster has gone after our Border Collie, who herds the ducks and chickens, she just laid on him until he stopped. End of problem.

I also had two hatchery bantam cochin cockerels. Meanest little imps we've ever had, they kept attacking the back of my legs and pecking at my feet. Its amazing how aerodynamic a bantam cockerel is. They went to the freezer camp pronto. I didn't want those genes continuing.

Then there's our two Frizzle Silkie males, both roosters, both living together in an enclosed pen/coop and sharing the ladies. Works for them, so we haven't sold off the extra guy. I don't see the same behaviors from Napoleon or Grumpus that I do in Big Blue. Even with broody hens, chicks, etc. they just don't seem to care. Not sure if this is a Silkie thing (they are my first) or if life is different in the pen.

I'd love to hear others thoughts on this.

One of Big Blue's offspring is a lovely blue Cochin cockerel with red leakage, so we call him Red Chief. He's still a very young guy and in training. He tried to peck me about a month ago and Big Blue stomped him. And I do mean STOMPED. He tried it again this week, so I grabbed him off the perch, laid him down on the coop floor, held his body down carefully and pulled hard on the feathers of the back of his neck. Then after holding him down awhile, I let him go. He's been very politely wary since then, but we're keeping an eye on him. I've got a friend who wants chicken for Christmas supper, so he's got three weeks to figure things out.

I employ a few college-aged young people to do yard chores, landscaping, coop cleanout, etc. and I always make sure they are familiar with roosters and the warning signs. They also wear thick farm coats, galoshes, etc. so well protected. So far, so good.

 

[Jakenhoss]

I had a very mean bantam for two yeas he was mean. He is four now. The first year he was a good as pie, then out of nowhere he started attacking other people for no reason, then one morning I went out to feed and he started attacking me.
I tried kicking, chocking, yelling, holding him down, etc., but to no avail.

I got another batch of babies last spring, 2010, and there were 2 roos, 1 silkie and 1 cochin. They both ganged up on him and almost killed him. I got rid of the 2 and kept my original. Since then he has been good as gold. I guess it took him getting the crap beat out of him in order for him to straighten out. Every once in a while he comes up to me and pecks at my boot, I just ignore him and he goes about his business.
He was babied from the git go. So I don't think the way one raises a roo matters. It just depends on the roo.

 

[cochunk]

how you raise a roo plays a part in how he will behave, the roosters we had we very affectionate and nice, we were also dominate over them so that could be why too.

 

[GoldenSparrow]

Jakenhoss wrote:

He was babied from the git go. So I don't think the way one raises a roo matters. It just depends on the roo.

I agree compleatly! you never know

 

[Beekissed]

I must have been real lucky for the past 35 years....only had one that ever even tried to attack me and I didn't raise that one, it was given to me. He just tried to flog my egg basket and after a very brief retraining session, he never attempted any further aggressive behaviors.

Had another old RIR roo that was given to me that attempted to peck me once...again, a soft cuffing upside the head stopped the behavior promptly and it was never repeated.

I can't imagine how all the folks on here end up with all these ornery roos, no matter the breed....I've had all kinds of breeds of roo and never had this level of difficulties.