What does my Roo think when he does this? Is it aggression or just excitement?

[aart]

Note is he very mature and has been for awhile. He’s pushing a year and a half old. He’s no spring chick. He was my first, and I have many others now. I got him April of 2019. My other white rocks had to be slaughtered.

Oh, thought he was a CX when you said meat bird.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Sure, people get attacked by roosters. I've been attacked many times over the years. In my cases I got attacked because I did something stupid out of ignorance. Once I learn't a bit about roosters and adjusted my behaviour I stopped getting flogged.
There is a lot of hysteria on the forum boards regarding roosters. In many instances as the stories unfold you can see exactly why the rooster became aggressive. Roosters are aggressive by nature. It's how they protect their hens from other roosters and on occasions predators. The chicken loving human may not consider themselves as a predator but the evidence tells a different story and most roosters haven't read the we're such a lovely species propaganda given out by humans.
What I am keen to avoid, when I have the patience for it, is to help prevent the advice so often given out by people who haven't actually had much experience in dealing with rooster behaviour.
For example, I am far more likely to take into consideration advice from people who have still got a live rooster than those who have had to kill one or more because they couldn't cope with it's behaviour. No doubt there are difficult roosters much as there are difficult other creatures.
My view is it's better to deal with the difficult and learn rather than keep killing the difficult until something nice turns up. I'm probably a bit strange in this respect.

In most circumstances that I read about, especially if children are involved my advice is reluctantly, get rid of the rooster. In this instance the OP seems to want to give the rooster the benefit of the doubt; always a good thing imo, our laws are based around such a premise.

I completely agree, and have yet to personally get rid of a rooster or cull one for well... roostering! Or any reason for that matter. I agree, they are "aggressive by nature". That is merely what I was trying to convey. More likely he is showing a dominance behavior than wanting a friendly cuddle. I never proposed culling or rehoming. I think the first thing should be, if needed, to observe an animal and adjust ones behavior accordingly. And I would agree there is a lot of rooster stereotypes out there. I just wanted to confirm that I personally wasn't spreading hysteria. Merely giving an opinion based on research and experience.

 

[Sammy1122]

A rooster won’t always act right off the bat.Just because he didn’t attack the ten times he shuffled,doesn’t mean he won’t start.
Op,he already attacked your husband and the behavior he is doing is a dominant behavior and courting behavior, he more then likely will start attacking you, but if it doesn’t bother you then I wouldn’t worry.
I ahve had great roosters who made great pets but I have had nasty ones too.
Chickens are unpredictable,escpecially roosters.

 

[birdlover2]

I don't know if this is aggressive behavior toward you rn, but I would suggest showing him who's boss. Some people use sticks or squirt guns when the roo comes after them to train the rooster to not mess with them. You or your husband can also take the roo and hold him on the ground and gently push his head into the ground. This is a display of dominance that roos do to other roos. Your husband, at the very least, should take these measures so that he doesn't get attacked.

 

[MamaBird89]

Oh, thought he was a CX when you said meat bird.

I’m not even sure if he’s a white rock or a Cornish. The other 3 I had got too big. One broke a leg I believe and I literally had my vet put him down(I didn’t want meat birds, I didn’t realize this was going to happen and I just couldn’t do it myself), the other we sent to be slaughtered as he was the biggest one of all, and he was starting to struggle. The third Was just a week ago and I had grown a huge emotional attachment too as she was my only other hen until recently. She got so big that I’m guessing she laid under the shed where it’s dig out and sit in her poos and pees all day. I put her up that night and the next morning scratched her lower back like I always did because she enjoyed it, but it also allowed me to check her vent to make sure her nightly egg had passed(she was a very big girl) and when I did, she had maggots covering her bottom. I cleaned her off and treated 3 times that day, checked her one more time before I put them up for the night because I thought she was going to be fine, nope, they migrated to her mounting scratches. She was so big she couldn’t even do anything about it. I know the poor girl felt them eating her alive, I couldn’t let her go another second like that. It just clicked. Boo hooing like a baby, I had to slaughter my first chicken. Broke me. No more meat birds for me. But Roosty. He’s held up. He’s not so big that he has the health problems the CX has, but they was all from the same hatch. Hell maybe even a leghorn. Who knows? I love his goofy self anyways!

 

[birdlover2]

I’m not even sure if he’s a white rock or a Cornish. The other 3 I had got too big. One broke a leg I believe and I literally had my vet put him down(I didn’t want meat birds, I didn’t realize this was going to happen and I just couldn’t do it myself), the other we sent to be slaughtered as he was the biggest one of all, and he was starting to struggle. The third Was just a week ago and I had grown a huge emotional attachment too as she was my only other hen until recently. She got so big that I’m guessing she laid under the shed where it’s dig out and sit in her poos and pees all day. I put her up that night and the next morning scratched her lower back like I always did because she enjoyed it, but it also allowed me to check her vent to make sure her nightly egg had passed(she was a very big girl) and when I did, she had maggots covering her bottom. I cleaned her off and treated 3 times that day, checked her one more time before I put them up for the night because I thought she was going to be fine, nope, they migrated to her mounting scratches. She was so big she couldn’t even do anything about it. I know the poor girl felt them eating her alive, I couldn’t let her go another second like that. It just clicked. Boo hooing like a baby, I had to slaughter my first chicken. Broke me. No more meat birds for me. But Roosty. He’s held up. He’s not so big that he has the health problems the CX has, but they was all from the same hatch. Hell maybe even a leghorn. Who knows? I love his goofy self anyways!

I get why you want to keep him seeing as he's all you have left of the hatch. Try out some of the ideas in this thread to help him see his place in the flock! Yeah, don't get meat birds unless you plan on slaughtering, because they just develop too quickly and unnaturally, they really do get too big. I don't think I'd be able to slaughter a chicken at all, so you're brave but I'm also sad you had to do that . I'm glad you still have Roosty, just take preventative measures to make sure he doesn't end tragically for another reason. Even if you're comfortable with the behavior he shows toward you, your husband probably doesn't like being attacked. View my post above and other people's posts for tips on how to deal with aggressive roosters. If you deal with problems early your roo will most likely never develop into a horror, but if you don't you'll end up wondering why your sweet baby turned against you and may be forced to slaughter (or give away), which I don't want for any person or rooster, and which you certainly don't want for Roosty.

 

[MamaBird89]

Here’s some pictures of Mister Roosty for you all