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

[MamaBird89]

I have a roo, oh my beautiful boy. The last surviving of my meat birds but I do believe he will be able to have a much longer life than the rest. He has the legs to accommodate the weight, and he has also been placed on a special diet. Anyways. He’s so social with me and no one else, loves for me to pet on him and rub on his face and comb. Every time he sees me, he will flap his wings, and like kinda turn sideways and kinda come up to me faster than usualand stop right when he’s touching the side of my leg. I thought it was him trying to attack at first, so I would kinda keep a few inches between us. But once he gets to me he stops and just lets me pet him and he will start cockadoodle doing. It’s like he’s running up on me to attack, but doesn’t. I’m wondering if anyone has had a rooster do this to them before? Is he just excited at my presence? I’ve told my husband I think he thinks I’m one of his girls, because he has ran up on and attacked my hubby when we was having a disagreement he’s literally like a dog. Here’s some pictures of my handsome Roosty.

 

[Aapomp831]

He’s showing you that he’s boss and you’re entering his territory. Not good behavior at all, and eventually he will attack you. Roosters should be submissive to you; get out of the way when you come around. But rushing up to you like that is a form of dominant aggression. It will get worse as he gets older; but if he’s a meat bird I wouldn’t worry too much if he’s just going to end up in the dinner table.

 

[Tre3hugger]

I agree that he is testing the boundaries with you. Seeing what he can get away with. When my rooster does this, I go back at him. We literally play "chicken". I always win, but he gets the picture he can't do whatever he wants when I am in the run. Also, crowing is letting you know hey, if you can hear this, this is my territory. And the petting...subordinates preen the higher ranking flock members.

It is fun and adorable while it lasts but these behaviors and not uncommon and typically are the early signs of dominance assertion.

 

[MamaBird89]

He’s showing you that he’s boss and you’re entering his territory. Not good behavior at all, and eventually he will attack you. Roosters should be submissive to you; get out of the way when you come around. But rushing up to you like that is a form of dominant aggression. It will get worse as he gets older; but if he’s a meat bird I wouldn’t worry too much if he’s just going to end up in the dinner table.

In honesty, I don’t believe it is aggression. I had just never seen a roo do it. I have raised him from 2 days old, and I have also Had to nurture him back to health a couple times. It may sound completely physco but after seeing everything else they are capable of, it wouldn’t surprise me. I’m wondering if he’s seeing our two pups climb up in my lap and get scratched and rubbed. Roosty is very aware that I am the dominant one. He will run from me, or sway away a bit when he sees he’s in trouble or he senses I’m not in the best of moods. If I grab one of the girls he will make a few noises but he has never tried to attack or approach even while clipping everyone’s wings. He will only do what I’m speaking of when I crouch down. If I sit on the ground he gets in my lap like a dog, or If I lay down on my side he will prop his crop up on my belly and lay there. I understand a lot of you have had aggressive roosters(I being one) that’s why this is so crazy to me. I was in the same mindset to keep my distance and assert dominance until Roostys extra special self starting exhibiting dog behavior

 

[Shadrach]

It sounds as if he's doing a type of herding shuffle. It's intention is friendly. A few of the roosters here that I have has more contact with than others will do this to me.
Unfortunately you'll get a lot of 'he's being aggresive, or testing you' comments. If he was intent on attacking you you would have been attacked. Roosters don't tend to mess about in this respect.
Have a read of this article I wrote trying to explain a bit about rooster behavior to counter some of the hysteria that gets written.
Some of the information may not be relevant but the movements and the motivations are pretty much the same for all roosters.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/understanding-your-rooster.75056/

 

[Tre3hugger]

I hope that you are right @MamaBird89 . I have never had an aggressive rooster and just try to research and observe to come up with my answer. You know your own experience better than us. But there are countless stories, anecdotal evidence, not HYSTERIA (@Shadrach ), that will confirm some roosters are really nice until they are not, and they all start out doing what yours does.

Personally I have never had an aggressive or cuddly rooster. I currently own 2. I enjoy them and they begrudgingly tolerate my company around their girls.

 

[MamaBird89]

In honesty, I don’t believe it is aggression. I had just never seen a roo do it. I have raised him from 2 days old, and I have also Had to nurture him back to health a couple times. It may sound completely physco but after seeing everything else they are capable of, it wouldn’t surprise me. I’m wondering if he’s seeing our two pups climb up in my lap and get scratched and rubbed. Roosty is very aware that I am the dominant one. He will run from me, or sway away a bit when he sees he’s in trouble or he senses I’m not in the best of moods. If I grab one of the girls he will make a few noises but he has never tried to attack or approach even while clipping everyone’s wings. He will only do what I’m speaking of when I crouch down. If I sit on the ground he gets in my lap like a dog, or If I lay down on my side he will prop his crop up on my belly and lay there. I understand a lot of you have had aggressive roosters(I being one) that’s why this is so crazy to me. I was in the same mindset to keep my distance and assert dominance until Roostys extra special self starting exhibiting dog behavior

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. He held up. Never had any health problems like the others did. When He was about 4 weeks old, he got attacked by a stray. I isolated him For about 2 months. It was really bad, and then after he healed he ended up getting an infection and we had to reopen and drain. Took a while to heal. But in the biggest hormonal changes in his life, he was secluded from all birds. He also started cockadoodle doing much later than he should have.

 

[Tre3hugger]

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. He held up. Never had any health problems like the others did. When He was about 4 weeks old, he got attacked by a stray. I isolated him For about 2 months. It was really bad, and then after he healed he ended up getting an infection and we had to reopen and drain. Took a while to heal. But in the biggest hormonal changes in his life, he was secluded from all birds. He also started cockadoodle doing much later than he should have.

Interesting! He is definitely a good lookin beefcake! (chickencake?) LOL

 

[MamaBird89]

Interesting! He is definitely a good lookin beefcake! (chickencake?) LOL

He’s rotten. I appreciate your advice, I’m just dumbfounded. My other rooster is very distance and shy. I have never seen this and I’ve had 7 roosters so far. 4 whites and 3 black stars. Only have Roosty and a black star now.

 

[Shadrach]

I hope that you are right @MamaBird89 . I have never had an aggressive rooster and just try to research and observe to come up with my answer. You know your own experience better than us. But there are countless stories, anecdotal evidence, not HYSTERIA (@Shadrach ), that will confirm some roosters are really nice until they are not, and they all start out doing what yours does.

Personally I have never had an aggressive or cuddly rooster. I currently own 2. I enjoy them and they begrudgingly tolerate my company around their girls.

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.