What do I do about my agressive rooster?

[PepsNick]

well that's a fourth of your flock is roosters... that is toooooo many for 12 chickens!

 

[aly]

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i appreciate the humor, however, i don't believe violence is the way..... i have read it can only make them more aggressive.

 

[aly]

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they seem to be getting along and everything..... i am not trying to be rude but what makes it too many? are there certain behaviors that the hens or roosters will have by having too many roosters?

 

[Adorkable]

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i appreciate the humor, however, i don't believe violence is the way..... i have read it can only make them more aggressive.

I wasn't trying to be humorous. Someone on here said he does that and it works really well for him. I wouldn't exactly call that violence I would call it speaking their language. Good luck with your attack roosters

 

[aly]

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i appreciate the humor, however, i don't believe violence is the way..... i have read it can only make them more aggressive.

I wasn't trying to be humorous. Someone on here said he does that and it works really well for him. I wouldn't exactly call that violence I would call it speaking their language. Good luck with your attack roosters

sorry, then i misunderstood.... thanks for the advice

 

[NottinghamChicks]

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If you don't want to stick him in the pot I have found that chicken swaps work well to rid your "problem child". I brought two (one was mean) and sold them both within 35 minutes!!

 

[CANDLE98]

you know i hatched out some wellsummers and i got 2 roosters and i got one sweet roo and one mean as all get out roo, he would attack everyone! i love my chickens and I tried everything with him but one day i told my husband to just go ahead and shoot him because he was a lost cause. After my husband cleaned him we soaked him in a brine and then cooked in a crockpot and he was the best tasting chicken i have ever had! My kids were so happy to finally get rid of the mean roo! While they were eating him my 5 year old says take that mean roo! she really didn't like him!

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

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they seem to be getting along and everything..... i am not trying to be rude but what makes it too many? are there certain behaviors that the hens or roosters will have by having too many roosters?

For an example, when my flock was younger, we had a horrible ratio. Actually, worse than yours 3-4 roos (one was only there for a small amount of time before he passed away from illness) to about 10 hens. I loved all of my birds and found it difficult to part with them. The 3 surviving roos were all mean. They went after me whenever I got close, and even though I stood my ground and never showed weakness, they continued to press on. I did get sick of not being able to see my own birds, though, so a friend took them to free-range them on his farm and take care of the tick population. We checked on them a few months after and they were still alive and well. Don't get me wrong, they still felt like my babies as I was packing them up and exiling them...but I felt my hens and I both deserved a less stressful life. The roosters bickered between each other, too. And some of them were over-mating some of my hens.

If you don't see any obvious signs of a troubled flock, you might be lucky. But alot of roosters will cause issues when you're not around to see them. Like they may become aggressive with hens, over-mating, fighting with each other (it does cause a little stress, even though it may seem to be none of the hen's business, because they keep screwing with the pecking order), etc. Chances are, you just have a mean rooster. Probably doesn't have anything to do with this if you don't see any obvious issues. But, there is always that chance. This might have even caused it. When roos are always in competition, it tends to change them. The choice is yours. I must agree that it is very unfortunate that there aren't more non-aggressive ways of dealing with this, but there just isn't enough room in the world to keep every rooster alive. Especially the ones that there is no or little help for. And trust me, I've never had any success with 'un-meaning' a rooster.

 

[dsqard]

There are threads on here (there is one really good one that I can't remember who wrote but very informative) on how to adjust mean rooster behavior. I don't have any experience with doing this since I have only had chickens for a little while and the roo I have I got as a well behaved 3 year old. Anyway, if you do a search you will find the threads and can try the methods that are described that you like. From what I have seen it takes working with them consitently for quite a while. IMO if you have small children, I wouldn't even take the chance. I would either rehome them or eat them. Too many nice roosters out there to feed a meanie. Just think about how close to the ground a small child's eyes are and how a rooster can fly up and spur someone at above ground level. It is up to you what you do.

 

[cubalaya]

you can try some of the methods on here to reform your roo. i wont keep a mean one. too many good ones to worry with a mean one. if you sell him at a swap, he might attack someone elses kids. if you breed him then the roos that he produces will probably be mean , too. i have found that the mean ones do taste better. cull.